Minnesota officials share anti-trafficking strategies at D.C. summit

Federal efforts to curb human trafficking in Minnesota were on stage Friday in Washington, D.C., as the state's U.S. attorney was tapped to deliver a case study at an all-day Justice Department summit.

U.S. Attorney Greg Brooker described recent prosecutions ranging from the abuse of a Chinese nanny to a vast international sex trade ring to underscore the need to prioritize such cases beyond high-profile sporting events like the Super Bowl.

"If we really want to get to the problem of human trafficking, and get it under control, awareness and enforcement efforts must be nurtured, supported and most importantly must be sustained long after the big game is over," Brooker told an audience of top Justice Department officials, advocates and private sector professionals on Friday.

The ongoing prosecution of 38 people behind a complex Thailand-based sex trafficking conspiracy initially put Brooker's office on U.S. Attorney Jeff Sessions' radar during a visit to Minneapolis last July, Brooker said in a call with reporters before Friday's summit. In his opening remarks at the summit, Sessions described Brooker as "a valuable member" of one of the country's regional "anti-trafficking coordination" teams that bring together federal agents to help build complex cases like the "Bangkok Dark Nights" takedown.

The summit came on the heels of January's National Human Trafficking Awareness Month. Associate Attorney General Rachel Brand said the Justice Department obtained convictions for nearly 500 defendants in sex and labor trafficking cases last year, with an additional 550 people charged.

Efforts to better train local law enforcement and workers in transportation, hospitality and other industries were also a persistent theme of Friday's summit.

"If everyone from flight attendants to hotel clerks to truck drivers to ER doctors learns the signs of trafficking, we will rescue more victims and bring more traffickers to justice," said Brand, a graduate of the University of Minnesota, Morris.

Sessions, meanwhile, cited reports from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that suggested the internet could be partly behind a "ninefold increase" in reports of suspected child sex trafficking from 2010 to 2015.

"It's hard to comprehend this level of cruelty," Sessions said.

In Minnesota, Brooker said, representatives from more than 40 organizations have hashed out an anti-trafficking strategy for the Super Bowl that had been in development for the past 19 months. Calling sex trafficking "a market-driven enterprise," Brooker said authorities expected a rise in online sex ads.

Brooker added that the FBI has identified the Twin Cities metro as the country's 14th biggest location for child sex trafficking.

"Minnesota pretty much has everything," Brooker said, referring to an international border, the Mall of America and nearby major airport. "However, the things that make my state unique are the things that present human trafficking vulnerabilities."

Brooker also announced Friday that "a collaborative team" of "dozens" of Minnesota police departments working with the FBI and Homeland Security Investigations have been making arrests across the Twin Cities as part of "targeted trafficking stings."

The FBI conducted a similar national initiative last fall in its annual Operation Cross Country.

Stephen Montemayor • 612-673-1755 Twitter: @smontemayor