Dozens of illegal aliens were among those arrested in Florida during a human trafficking crackdown officially titled “Fool Around and Find Out,” authorities say.
The Polk County Sheriff’s Office (PCSO) announced details about the nine-day undercover operation, which began on May 2.
Working with a wide variety of local, state, and federal agencies, PCSO apprehended a total of 244 suspects accused of participating in prostitution, aiding/abetting, transporting, or deriving proceeds from prostitutes.
“The 93 suspects who travelled to commit prostitution were screened by detectives and the 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,” PCSO explained in a press release on Friday.
“During this investigation, four possible human trafficking victims were identified.”
At least 36 of the suspects were illegally present in the U.S. and were identified as citizens of Venezuela, Cuba, Honduras, Mexico, Haiti, Columbia, Guatemala, and Brazil.
A total of 102 felonies were charged along with 284 misdemeanors. Many of the suspects had criminal records that included charges for premeditated murder, attempted murder, kidnapping, robbery, aggravated battery, and sexual assault.
“This is the highest number of suspects we’ve ever arrested during a single undercover operation – in addition to these 244 arrests, we also arrested 11 child predators who solicited who they thought were children online in order to sexually batter them,” said Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd.
“The online prostitution industry enables traffickers and allows for the continued victimization of those who are being trafficked.”