Six adults and two children were rescued in a human trafficking operation late Friday at two truck stops in Missouri, the state attorney general office announced.
Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt’s office said on Saturday the joint law enforcement operation was carried out at two St. Joseph truck stops and resulting in the rescue of five female victims, one male, and two children—a two-year-old and an infant. Meanwhile, the effort also resulted in three arrests with additional arrests possibly to come.
“This operation was successful because of cooperation between my Office, the St. Joseph Police Department, the state highway patrol, the Buchanan County Sheriff’s Office, and 13 other agencies and departments. This unprecedented success should send clear a message to traffickers: you are not welcome in Missouri, and you can’t hide any longer,” Schmitt said
Sixteen agencies participated in the operation along with the attorney general’s office human trafficking task force, the release stated. The victims were provided with services such as medical, food, and lodging after their rescue.
About 24.9 million people around the world and in the United States, both adults and children, are trapped in some form of human trafficking, the White House stated, while about 1 in 800 people in the United States are living in “modern slavery,” according to 2018 data by the Walk Free Foundation. The phrase is a broad term used to describe victims of forced labor, sexual exploitation or servitude, and forced marriages, among numerous other abuses.
The National Human Trafficking Hotline stated it received 11,500 human trafficking reports in 2019, with sex trafficking being the most commonly reported type of trafficking. Between 2007 and 2019, the number of human trafficking situations identified through the hotline was 63,380.
