Why Georgia Is Expanding Its Anti-Human Trafficking Unit Along Major Highways

Georgia’s anti-human trafficking unit is expanding, aiming for quick access to interstate highways used by smugglers. The expansion comes after a recent recovery of 11 child trafficking victims.

“This horrific industry is transitory in nature,” Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr told the Daily Signal. “We don’t just have a legal obligation, we have a moral obligation to these children.”

The Georgia Attorney General’s Human Trafficking Prosecution Unit, which Carr, a Republican, started in 2019, is headquartered in Atlanta, providing quick access to Interstate 75.

The attorney general’s office expanded satellite offices to Augusta and Macon this year to expand access to Interstates 85 and 16. Carr also plans to expand that effort to Savannah for better access to Interstate 95.

It’s not that the locations are particularly troubled areas, he said. Rather, those cities provide quick access for routes used by traffickers.

In late April, the Georgia attorney general’s office announced that a national effort it partakes in, Operation Coast to Coast, identified 12 minor victims of human trafficking. Of those, 11 were in Georgia. The operation also identified 154 adult victims across the country.

The operation involved more than 250 law enforcement agencies across 30 states. Operation Coast to Coast was organized and led by the Human Trafficking Training Center, a law enforcement training organization.

Since its establishment, Carr’s anti-human trafficking unit has secured about 70 criminal convictions, and rescued and assisted more than 200 children, according to the attorney general’s office. The majority of cases involve domestic minor sex trafficking, with the average age of victims between 14 and 17 years old.

The unit includes prosecutors, investigators, analysts, and victim advocates, as it works with local, state, and federal law enforcement to rescue victims and prosecute offenders throughout the state.

Carr said he learned local district attorneys’ offices aren’t always equipped to handle the unusual trafficking cases, which is why specialized prosecutors are needed.

“We need specialized prosecutors so we don’t retraumatize the victim,” Carr said. “We also need specialized prosecutors who understand that some of the victims think the offender loves them.”

Carr said 80% of traffickers are gang-affiliated, and it’s for the most part funded by organized retail theft.

Several cases involve illegal immigrants in connection with child sex trafficking in the state. For example, in October, the state charged two defendants from Guatemala with the trafficking of a 14-year-old girl, also from Guatemala.

Carr noted he also had anti-gang and anti-organized theft units.

“We’ve been doing this since 2019, which has provided continuity to build relationships with federal law enforcement as well,” Carr said. “The courts were closed in 2020 during COVID, but that forced us to build relationships that have been helpful.”

Since starting, the anti-trafficking unit also shut down more than 40 illicit massage businesses throughout Georgia as part of Operation In Plain Sight.

In some cases, rescuing one victim can lead to multiple prosecutions.

Carr’s office partnered with the U.S. Marshals Service Operation Not Forgotten, which resulted in the safe location of 39 missing children in 2020 and 20 missing children in 2021.

One of the victims was a 17-year-old previously reported as missing from her Missouri home and located at a hotel in Fulton County, Georgia, where she was trafficked. From that recovery, Carr’s team was able to prosecute 13 traffickers, including those who bought and sold the child for sex.

Some Democrat district attorneys in Georgia have been reluctant to work with the attorney general’s office on what he said should be an obvious bipartisan matter.

“It’s political in nature for some, and that’s unfortunate. No one is for human trafficking, except for the traffickers,” said Carr, who is running in a crowded Republican gubernatorial primary this year. “I’ll work with anybody of any political party to prosecute the buyers and sellers and to rescue children.”