{"id":30232,"date":"2023-02-16T17:07:42","date_gmt":"2023-02-16T22:07:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=30232"},"modified":"2023-02-16T17:07:48","modified_gmt":"2023-02-16T22:07:48","slug":"undercover-human-trafficking-investigation-operation-traffic-stop-results-in-213-arrests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2023\/02\/16\/undercover-human-trafficking-investigation-operation-traffic-stop-results-in-213-arrests\/","title":{"rendered":"Undercover human trafficking investigation &#8220;Operation Traffic Stop&#8221; results in 213 arrests"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"339\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" src=\"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/operation-traffic-stop-poster-1024x339.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-30233\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/operation-traffic-stop-poster-1024x339.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/operation-traffic-stop-poster-300x99.jpg 300w, https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/operation-traffic-stop-poster-768x254.jpg 768w, https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/operation-traffic-stop-poster-1536x508.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/operation-traffic-stop-poster.jpg 1999w\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">During a seven-day undercover human trafficking operation, \u201cOperation Traffic Stop,\u201d which began on Monday, February 6, 2023, the Polk County Sheriff\u2019s Office Vice Unit arrested 213 suspects. Detectives from the Okeechobee County Sheriff\u2019s Office, Auburndale PD, Winter Haven PD, Haines City PD, Lake Wales PD, Lakeland PD, Davenport PD, and Bartow PD, as well as from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, assisted with the investigation. The Office of the State Attorney 10th Judicial Circuit, State Attorney Brian Haas, members from the Florida Department of Children and Families (DCF), and social services organizations One More Child; Heartland for Children; My Name My Voice; Selah Freedom; and the Children\u2019s Home Society Child Advocacy Center, were also on-hand.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Those who traveled to provide prostitution services were screened by detectives and social services organizations to determine if they were being trafficked or exploited by others, and were offered services by the social services organizations at the operation. During this investigation, 24 possible human trafficking victims were identified from the 111 prostitutes who were arrested.<\/p>\n\n\n        \n        <div class=\"embedpress-gutenberg-wrapper source-provider-Youtube aligncenter ep-clear   ep-content-protection-disabled inline\" id=\"\" data-embed-type=\"Youtube \">\n            <div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper \">\n                <div id=\"ep-gutenberg-content-\" class=\"ep-gutenberg-content\">\n                    <div >\n                        <div class=\"ep-embed-content-wraper preset-default insta-grid ep-google-photos-carousel\"\n                            style=\"max-width:600px;margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto\"                                                                                                                >\n\n                            <div class=\"ose-youtube ose-uid-107dddea5dc1f41bf8d5a753bbc59b73 ose-embedpress-responsive\" style=\"width:600px; max-width:100%; height: 100%; display:inline-block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" allowFullScreen=\"true\" title=\"Undercover human trafficking investigation (February 16, 2023)\" width=\"600\" height=\"450\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/gESJU5jzz38?feature=oembed&#038;color=red&#038;rel=1&#038;controls=2&#038;start=true&#038;end=true&#038;fs=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;autoplay=0&#038;modestbranding=0&#038;cc_load_policy=0\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen title=\"Undercover human trafficking investigation &#8220;Operation Traffic Stop&#8221; results in 213 arrests\"><\/iframe><\/div>                        <\/div>\n\n                                            <\/div>\n                <\/div>\n            <\/div>\n        <\/div>\n    \n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">89 suspects were arrested for soliciting a prostitute and traveling to the undercover location to negotiate to have sex in exchange for money. 13 other suspects were arrested, and of those, 10 were either deriving proceeds from prostitution or aiding and abetting prostitutes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201c<em>Not only did we arrest more suspects during this single operation than we have ever arrested before, we identified 24 human trafficking victims \u2013 the highest number of victims we\u2019ve ever rescued during one of these investigations. The valuable relationships that we have with the social services organizations who join us in these operations make it possible for these women to get help and be emancipated from this way of life<\/em>.\u201d \u2013&nbsp;<strong>Grady Judd, Sheriff<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Some interesting notes from the operation:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u2022 Five suspects were previously arrested by PCSO during a similar undercover operation, and two of those were just arrested during the September 2022 \u201cOperation Fall Haul II.\u201d<br><br>\u2022 14 of the arrested are suspected of being in the country illegally (13 from Cuba and one from Mexico), and six of the 14 were identified as victims of human trafficking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u2022 35 suspects told detectives they are married.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u2022 Detectives charged those arrested with a total of 68 felonies and 308 misdemeanors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u2022 Several of the suspects have criminal histories, including violent felonies such as kidnapping, robbery, aggravated assault, and sex offenses.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u2022 22 suspects told detectives they receive government assistance.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u2022 Detectives seized fentanyl, cocaine, methamphetamine, and marijuana, from those arrested during the operation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u2022 Two of the suspects brought firearms to the undercover location \u2013 Rydreka Harris and Horace Levatte.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u2022 The oldest person arrested is 68 years old (Dellbert Dinsmore), while the youngest is 19 years old (Jamal Spike).&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>During a seven-day undercover human trafficking operation, \u201cOperation Traffic Stop,\u201d which began on Monday, February 6, 2023, the Polk County Sheriff\u2019s Office Vice Unit arrested 213 suspects. Detectives from the&hellip; <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":30234,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[12,14],"tags":[4562],"class_list":["post-30232","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","category-news","tag-undercover-human-trafficking-investigation-operation-traffic-stop-results-in-213-arrests"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30232","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30232"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30232\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}