Florida human trafficking sting nabs 157 people, including 25 illegal immigrants
Florida law enforcement officials arrested 157 people during a human trafficking sting, including 25 illegal immigrants, some of whom allegedly received benefits from the federal government after stepping foot into the country.Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd was joined with representatives from various other law enforcement agencies from places like Marion County, Lake County, Auburndale, Clermont, Davenport, Winter Haven, Lakeland and Tampa, when he announced that “Operation Autumn Sweep” resulted in the arrest of 157 suspects involved in illegal acts related to soliciting prostitutes, offering to commit prostitution, and aiding and abetting prostitutes.Three others were arrested for traveling to sexually batter children.The operation began on Oct.
2, and the investigation found that four possible human trafficking victims were identified out of the 47 prostitutes who showed up to undercover locations to commit prostitution.Judd’s office said 96 suspects were arrested for soliciting prostitution, and out of the 157 people arrested, there were 35 felonies, and 201 misdemeanors issued.“The approach of Hurricane Milton caused us to end our investigation earlier than planned, but it’s still amazing that in such a short amount of time we were able to put 157 people in jail, and three child predators,” Judd said.Out of the 157 people who were arrested, the sheriff explained, 25 were in the US illegally from countries like Cuba, Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico and Venezuela.“Sixteen percent of these total arrests were people who should not even have been in this country,” the sheriff said.“But they were here, and they were here because we have a federal government that enabled these criminals to come into the country, and they treated them very well after the criminals came here illegally.”Judd shared the story of a female suspect who came to the US with her child.
The woman told investigators she flew into Mexico from Venezuela and then wal...