DOJ Update in Human Trafficking arrests in 2018

In fiscal year 2018, the Justice Department initiated a total of 230 human trafficking prosecutions, charging 386 defendants and convicting a record 526 defendants. The Department continued its successful Anti-Trafficking Coordination Team (ACTeam) Initiative, working with partners in the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Labor. In 2018, ACTeams saw significant prosecution results, including increases of 10 percent, 75 percent, and 106 percent, in cases filed, defendants charged, and defendants convicted.

Successful cases under ACTeam leadership include one of the largest sex trafficking prosecutions in U.S. history, in which the Justice Department convicted 36 defendants operating a sex trafficking scheme that exploited hundreds of Thai women in multiple states. Additionally, five members of a notorious international criminal organization, known as the Rendon-Reyes Sex Trafficking Organization, were sentenced to prison terms of 15 to 25 years. Prosecution resulted in dismantling of this organization, which forced young women and girls from Mexico and Central America into prostitution for over a decade.

Also in fiscal year 2018, the FBI initiated 649 human trafficking cases and arrested 2453 subjects. The FBI’s efforts contributed to 410 human trafficking convictions and 422 sentencings in this same period.

The Department’s Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute child sex traffickers and other individuals who sexually exploit children, as well as to identify and rescue victims. This collaborative effort yields powerful results, including, for example, five indictments and three superseding indictments charging a total of 19 defendants with sex trafficking offenses against children in the Southern District of New York.

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/department-justice-recognizes-human-trafficking-prevention-month-and-announces-update-efforts