Alabama expands efforts to combat human trafficking
MONTGOMERY, AL (WSFA) - Human trafficking is a problem worldwide. Traffickers can be cunning criminals and dismantling their operations requires a coordinated approach by authorities.
To discuss how to best share key details on cases, 40 intelligence analysts and members of law enforcement from 11 different states met for a two-day training event at the RSA Headquarters in Montgomery this week, the first ever human trafficking symposium.
The event was hosted by the Alabama Fusion Center, which serves as the intelligence sharing network for the state. It responsible for sharing criminal intelligence and terrorism information with local, state and federal partners as well as private sector security.
According to Interpol, there are many types of human trafficking, but one consistent aspect is the abuse of the vulnerability of the victims. Forms of trafficking include: forced labor, sexual exploitation of women, sexual exploitation of children in tourism, trafficking for tissue, cells and organs and people smuggling.
"Human trafficking is a nationwide problem as well as an international problem and this was important because it allowed fusion center analysts and law enforcement to come together and discuss how we can best share information across the states," said Jessica Garcia with the Texas Department of Public Safety. "Human trafficking, by nature, does overlap into many different states throughout the US. It is important for us to share that information so that we can get as many victims as we can recovered as well as arrest traffickers, be it labor or sex trafficking."
Some of those taking part in the training course have already interacted with each other during investigations, but including other states allowed agencies to widen their scope and expand their network to combat the problem.
According to the Fusion Center, there are at least 12 people charged under the state Human Trafficking law in Birmingham, Homewood, Columbiana, Oxford, Tuscumbia, Montgomery and Ensley.
Two Montgomery men are among nine charged as part of a 32-count federal indictment in an interstate sex trafficking case.
A South Carolina, man who was arrested in Birmingham as part of the FBI's Operation Cross Country Operation, pleaded guilty to human trafficking in July 2015.
In December, a former Bibb County sheriff's deputy was found guilty of Human Trafficking charges in Dec. 2015.
That does not include the numerous open cases where suspects are being sought or investigated in relation to human trafficking crimes.
"We've known we've needed to do this for a long time. Analysts we've invited here as well as law enforcement talk daily on human trafficking but we need a way to get together, collaborate, share information, share ideas and meet face to face as we go forward with our human trafficking initiative," said Jay Moseley, Director of the Alabama Fusion Center. "This brings everybody together to one table, one environment in order to share the best practices and best ideas and collaborate and get a better understanding of what everybody knows so when we see this on a daily basis, we're able to share that rapidly among the states here."
The FBI and Department of Homeland Security also took part in the event. Participants heard from a victim and information was provided by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Human Smuggling and Trafficking Center.
The Alabama Fusion Center hopes to host the symposium each year, continuously building collaborations to combat these crimes.
"Human trafficking, sex trafficking, labor trafficking has no boundaries, no state borders. It's endless. So we needed to bring people together from Texas, Iowa, Atlanta, all over the southeast and beyond to come together to understand that the signs are the same everywhere. We're all on the same sheet of music when it comes to recognizing human trafficking," Moseley said.
"It just enhances the overall larger effort," Garcia added. "We know how everyone is working already. Enhancing our efforts only makes the cause of investigating human trafficking that much better."
Copyright 2016 WSFA 12 News. All rights reserved.
