MIAMI (WSVN) - Local and state officials held a news conference to tout their efforts against human trafficking during the World Cup.
As millions of soccer fans flocked to South Florida to watch the matches, law enforcement focused on protecting them from would-be predators.
“Spain won the World Cup, but we did something far more important. We showed the world what a special community we have here in Miami,” said Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez-Rundle.
Through collaboration among several Miami-Dade agencies, officials were able to combat human trafficking locally and statewide.
“We in law enforcement are proud to say [that] we held the line. Our human trafficking task force went into high gear,” said Fernandez-Rundle.
“Our goal was very simple. It was to make sure that we maintained what we needed to do. With our undercover operations to prevent and the exploitation to make this sort of arrest that we needed to do,” said Fernandez-Rundle.
Officials touted their success, which began in the weeks leading up to the tournament and lasted until the final whistle.
“We had 28 undercover operations. We did four per week across the county, tripling the operations that we normally do. This resulted in 178 total arrests. During the same time, we identified 17 suspected victims of human trafficking. Those investigations are ongoing,” said Fernandez-Rundle.
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier said prosecutions and convictions have almost doubled and said they are just getting started.
“We’re going to throw every resource, every prosecutor, every tool we have taking down those predators and protecting our most vulnerable,” said Uthmeier.
Due to Florida being known as a top destination for trafficking, officials said they’ll continue to fight it to protect residents.
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