A major sex trafficking sting operation in North Texas nets dozens of suspects.
46 people were arrested in the sex trafficking sting operation, in which the Department of Homeland Security teamed up with local law enforcement throughout North Texas.
"We utilized open source commercial sex websites, where we're able to get in contact with potential consumers of commercial sex," says John Perez, supervisory special agenct over the Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Dallas-led North Texas Trafficking Task Force.
What's especially startling is that people in positions of trust are among the 46 arrested.
"We did end up with a high school teacher who was also a football coach," Perez said. "We ended up with a volunteer firefighter. A youth pastor, a professional hockey player from the Allen team (Allen Americans), and the director of operations at a large medical facility here in Dallas."
KRLD has reached out to the Allen Americans for comment and has yet to hear back.
Perez says law enforcement has reached out to the employers of those suspects, whose identities have not yet been released.
"We'll notify their employers, because that's information they need in order to protect the youth that they work with, or even the adults that they work with that can be vulnerable."
Perez says this sting operation proves that sex trafficking is prevalent everywhere.
"A lot of people have this misconception that it's Las Vegas trail and Fort Worth (or) it's Harry Hines in Dallas (which) is where this occurs, and that it's people that don't come from affluence or from positions of public trust or a blue collar crime," says Perez. "In reality, it's not. It's all over the Metroplex."
Among the law enforcement agencies participating in this sting operation were police department in Arlington, Colleyville, Dallas, Flower Mound, Frisco, Irving and Midlothian, as well as sheriff's offices in Collin and Dallas counties.
"The victims of these heinous crimes are treated like commodities, used to make as much money as
possible, as quickly as possible," said Tarrant County Sheriff Bill Waybourn.
"Those who traffic victims are the scourge of the earth, and we will continue to target those responsible for the trafficking and those who solicit sex from them."
Perez says sting operations like this one highlight the importance for parents to very closely monitor their kids' internet and cell phone activity.
"When we grew up, it was, 'Don't do drugs, don't drink alcohol (and) don't smoke cigarettes.' Now it's educating kids on the dangers of cell phones, social media (and) all the different messaging applications because it's very easy for predators to reach out to them to pretend to be somebody they're not," says Perez.
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