Not For Sale: 33 Arrested In Super Bowl Human Trafficking Sting

ATLANTA — Federal law enforcement officials said Wednesday that 33 people have been arrested in metro Atlanta as part of a large human trafficking operation. U.S. Department of Homeland officials also said four victims of human trafficking have been rescued over the last four days.

The issue of human trafficking has gained more attention in Atlanta with the approach of Super Bowl LIII on Feb. 3 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium. According to the Department of Homeland Security, human trafficking is “modern-day slavery and involves the use of force, fraud, or coercion to obtain some type of labor or commercial sex act.” Human trafficking is not the same as human smuggling, which involves illegal transportation of a person across a border.

The different kinds of human trafficking include sex trafficking, forced labor, and domestic servitude. Sex trafficking victims may be forced, threatened, or manipulated by promises of love or affection to engage in sex acts for money. Any person under the age of 18 involved in a commercial sex act is considered a victim of human trafficking.

U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen was in Atlanta on Wednesday ahead of Super Bowl Sunday.

According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, one in seven endangered runaways in 2017 were likely child sex trafficking victims, and 88 percent of those children were in the care of social services or foster care when they went missing.

Read More: Minor Sex Trafficking: How Well Georgia Protects Children

According to the organization Save Our Adolescents from Prostitution, which held a recent event this past weekend designed to raise awareness among hotels about the crime:

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Image Susan Darnell