72 Arrested, 29 Human Trafficking Victims Rescued Across Mississippi: Officials
Mississippiโs attorney general announced on Thursday that it carried out a statewide operation in July that resulted in 72 arrests and the rescue of 29 human trafficking victims.
In โOperation Guardian Force,โ Attorney General Lynn Finch said in a statement that officials across the state targeted โcriminals who traffic peopleโ and took โdrugs off the streets.โ
The operation took place from July 14 to July 29, according to the office. It included 400 federal, state, and local law enforcement officials who coordinated arrests, warrants, and victimsโ services.
It also included a โsex offender compliance check to locate and identify sex offender registry absconders,โ while about two-dozen local offices were involved in the effort, said the attorney generalโs office.
The attorney generalโs office did not provide details on the recovery of the trafficking victims or more information about the operation. Her office also did not disclose details of the charges.
โI am proud of the dedicated investigators and prosecutors from the Attorney Generalโs Office, as well as our partners in local, state, and federal law enforcement, for their work on this operation and every day to keep our communities safe,โ Finch added in her statement. She also praised the Trump administration for providing assistance in the effort.
The Department of Transportation said that in the United States, the National Human Trafficking Hotline in 2023 โreceived a total of 30,162 substantive signals nationwide and received reports of 9,619 potential human trafficking cases referencing 16,999 potential victims.โ
Meanwhile, that same year, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children logged more than 18,400 reports of possible child sex trafficking incidents, while 4,800โor nearly 17 percentโof the 28,800 cases of children who were reported missing in 2023 likely were subjected to some form of sex trafficking, according to the agency.
The Bureau of Justice Statistics reported that around 1,900 people were referred to U.S. attorneysโ offices around the country on human trafficking charges in the fiscal year 2022, or an increase of 26 percent from 2012โs figures. The number of individuals prosecuted for the crime also more than doubled between 2012 and 2022, from 805 to 1,656 people, it added.