Nearly 50 South Florida Arrests in National Prostitution Stings

South Florida police find only one minor in sweep of undercover sex arrests
By JEFF BURNSIDE
Updated 9:15 AM EST, Wed, Nov 10, 2010

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A nationwide crackdown to get teens out of the sex trade took one underage girl in South Florida into safe custody and busted nearly 50 adults throughout Miami-Dade and Broward, authorities said Tuesday.

Called Operation Cross Country, the FBI, Department of Justice, local police and child advocate groups came together to conduct stings in 40 cities over the last 4 days.

Roughly 885 arrests of mostly adult prostitutes and some pimps were made, and 69 teenagers were taken into custody.

And those young women – girls – are the focus of this joint effort hoping to put a dent in the child prostitution underworld.

WATCH
Tom Dart is hot on the trail of Chicago hookers. One former girl prostitute recalled how her pimp wanted “a girl that would make him a lot of money,” she said, according to the FBI. “So he sold me for a thousand dollars.”

She’d been trapped in the juvenile sex trade and made it clear: There remains a tremendous need for more crackdowns and more resources to offer safe alternatives.

The government crackdown has happened several times since 2003. But this year, it resulted in more arrests and more “rescues” – as the FBI calls it – of young teenage girls. There were 99 female prostitutes under 18 years old who were arrested in the nationwide crackdown. Exactly how young is unclear because the FBI is not giving details or discussing the crackdown in-depth with reporters.

Much of the information comes from a press release, which does not allow for a back and forth exchange to clarify, challenge details and probe further.

Still, it was a massive sting, implies the statement.

Local police say undercover agents called the escort ads and asked for a young girl. When she showed up at a South Florida hotel, the arrest was made with the hope she’d tell authorities who she works for.

Tim Tams to be produced with ‘ethical’ cocoa

Australian biscuit company Arnott’s has announced that it will now source its West African cocoa through the Fair-trade certification scheme for production of all chocolate-based products, including their Tim Tams range, in a bid to stop child trafficking and unacceptable forms of child labour in the African cocoa industry.

The commitment follows a public campaign led by World Vision earlier this year calling on the company to ensure its cocoa supply chains were free from child labour, with World Vision’s CEO Tim Costello welcoming the move.

“Arnott’s sources 24 percent of its cocoa from Ghana in West Africa where there is widespread use of child labour in the cocoa industry. As CEO of World Vision I have visited the cocoa fields in West Africa where kids use dangerous machetes and pesticides, work long hours and often don’t go to school,” he said.

“The lack of a fair and stable price for cocoa farmers is a root cause of the exploitative labour problem. Farmers typically receive only a very small proportion of the final retail price for their cocoa, which means they are forced to produce it below the fair cost of production. It’s these conditions that often lead farmers to use child labour.

“By sourcing its cocoa through the Fair-trade certification system, Arnott’s is helping farmers get a fair price for their cocoa. It will also protect Arnott’s supply chain from exploitative labour practices.”

The agreement signed by Arnott’s to source its cocoa through the Fair-trade certification scheme stands until 2012, with a new policy commitment extending beyond this period.

World Vision Australia is working to unite Australians against human trafficking and slavery, with their Don’t Trade Lives campaign calling on the global chocolate industry to ensure a fair price for cocoa farmers in hopes to stop all exploited labour from cocoa production by 2018.

For more information or to support please visit http://www.donttradelives.com.au

Orlando Outreach

The Florida Classic is a 31 year tradition and is known as the nation’s
biggest historically black college and university (HBCU) football game,
pitting Sunshine State rivals Bethune-Cookman University and Florida A
University. All of us who have lived in the area for any length of time
know the increase traffic and revenue this brings to Orlando for the
weekend. We also know that large sporting events attract potential
traffickers and their victims. Based on the success of the Super Bowl
Commercial Exploitation of Children Outreach done in Tampa and Miami the,
Florida Coalition Against Human Trafficking (FCAHT) is organizing
a similar outreach for the Florida Classic.

On November 18th, we will be conducting training from 7 .pm. to 9 p.m.The
actual outreach will begin on November 19th, from 1 p. m to 4 p.m. On Saturday
November 20th, we will go out again and conduct street outreach throughout
Orlando. For more information on how you can become involved in our Tackle
the Traffickers event. please feel free to contact our main office for additional
information.