County Sheriff Leads Multi-State Sex Trafficking Sting: 556 Arrested

Sun-Times Media Wire

Chicago - In hotels and brothels, and via the Internet over a 10-day period ending Monday night, 314 “Johns” were arrested and charged in a multi-state operation targeting sex traffickers.

It’s the result of the second “National Day of Johns Arrests,” following the momentum of last year’s Columbus Day weekend pilot sweep, a Cook County Sheriff’s office release said.

In Cook County alone, there were 76 arrests -- 47 were men and 29 were women, according to Cook County Sheriff’s office spokesman Frank Bilecki. One pimp was arrested and 16 vehicles were towed in the county, he said.

“Large sporting events, such as the Super Bowl, bring out competitiveness in all of us, including, unfortunately, pimps and sex traffickers,” Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart said in the release. “In the days leading up to and including Super Bowl Sunday, my office coordinated with 19 other law enforcement agencies from around the country to send a strong message that our communities refuse to tolerate the sale of human beings for sex.”

The sheriff’s office took the lead in coordinating the nationwide sweep as part of an ongoing effort to highlihgt the role of sex buyers as perpetrators, while also providing support for prostitutes through its Human Trafficking Response Team, the release said.

In total, 556 people were arrested during the sting, including 314 men for soliciting sex; 227 misdemeanor arrests including prostitution; two human trafficking arrests and five pimping arrests; three pandering arrests; four theft arrests; 10 possession/delivery of drugs arrests; and 12 weapons charges.

There were 667 total charges filed, 114 vehicles towed and up to $474,300 may be collected in fines, the release said.

The FBI Chicago Division, Aurora and Elgin police, and the Kane County Sheriff’s office were the local law enforcement agencies involved. Arrests were also made in Nevada, Arizona, California, Massachusetts and Ohio.

The below is a direct quote from a mid-American newspaper.  The article was published on the 6th of Feb this year.

"While [name deleted] is the most high-profile arrest, officers said he was one of 9 men caught during the nationwide sting.
   
Officers said it was a 10-day investigation that took place simultaneously in a dozen major cities."

This is Law Enforcement at their best.  I hope they keep up the good work.  Hell, thats almost one a day.

Well, the paper must have just reported the number of arrests locally.  For a city with a population of over 840K, 8 arrests in a 10 day period, thats still pretty inadequate policing IMO.  A normal civilian with no training could get that many in one night with just a drive around looking for the SWs.

Maybe they were concentrating on real crimes.

The sting I read about in my neck of the woods this week was people thinking they were meeting under aged girls. Was the nationwide sting the same? Seems hard to believe leo would go to such lengths otherwise.

(copy from Chicago board post)

OK, so it's been awhile since I posted on here but here is something for thought.

Not a waste of taxpayer money some of you may think?? Putting the pimps and underage aside, this is about what it cost to run a 10 day sting in 8 states:       $1,361,600.00  !!!!!!!!!!     And that is only for the officers themselves, and that doesn't include any federal officers (FBI), states attorneys or public defenders, or any misc fees like throw away phones, court fee's, hotel rooms, rented vehicles. towing fee's..etc...

And no that isn't an exact number, but that is a conservative number bassed on current salaries (estimated at a low) for 136 people that make up the officers, supervisors, department coordinators and tow drivers salaries. So that number is probably on the low side, remember the government loves to throw money away!!  Remember not long ago there was a rather famous case here in chicago, (not naming names here) but  illinois spent over 30 million dollars to get a 300,000.00 fine and 8 months jail time for the convicted person!!!  

The sting out here took place in Norfolk, Va and caught one of our college football stars from years ago.  It used a website to set up the meetings which I can only assume was Backpage but the article said it the sherrif would not name the website.  I never use Backpage unless the person posting there has reviews here or is on Date-Check or P411.  It still sucks.  Sure, if the guys were looking for something like underage girls then hammer them.  But just plain olds hobbyist?  Poor guys.  Most were probably married.  On the website from Norfolk they posted EVERY persons photo.  Real nice.  I'm sure they troll here as well...