Box truck full of people was not involved in human trafficking: police

Viral videos circulating on social media Thursday purported to show a human trafficking operation underway outside Atlanta, but authorities say News week there was no evidence of exploitation.

Langston Proper was driving from downtown Atlanta to Gwinnett County on June 21, according to his Facebook post about the incident, when he began to see what appeared to be an arm and face protruding from the back of a Budget moving truck he was behind. .

Proper recorded the scene in several videos he posted on social media.

“I never thought I would see this in front of my eyes and not just in movies or heard about it by word of mouth,” he wrote on Facebook.

News week contacted Proper but was not immediately available to comment for this article.

Proper followed the truck and reported it to police, who pulled the vehicle over a short time later. Gwinnett County police said News week they stopped the vehicle near Sugarloaf Parkway on northbound I-85.

Responding officers found two families in the back of the van. There were eight people in total, including two children, according to a Gwinnett County police spokesperson.

“The occupants all told officers they were traveling from Alabama to Maryland for a new job opportunity,” police said. “The truck also contained their personal belongings.”

The truck driver was cited for allowing the occupants to ride in the back without seat belts. They were all taken to a local business and dropped off so they could find another way to Maryland.

“There is currently no evidence of human trafficking,” the ministry said.

Georgia's Sex Trafficking Problem

Atlanta's geographic location and reputation as a major air and ground transportation hub have made it a center for human trafficking, particularly young women from Mexico and America, according to the Justice Department. central. The city is ranked among 14 U.S. cities with the highest levels of child sex trafficking.

In 2019, Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr created a statewide human trafficking prosecution unit, consisting of prosecutors, investigators, dedicated analysts, a defender victims and a paralegal.

The unit works with local, state and federal law enforcement to arrest and prosecute offenders while rescuing victims of sex trafficking.

Last year, the unit rescued 129 victims. He worked on 81 investigations and obtained 29 new convictions.

The most recent data from the National Human Trafficking Hotline shows that 1,073 reports were received by the hotline in 2021 from Georgia. Nearly 350 of those were from victims or survivors of human trafficking. Nationally, 51,073 reports were received that same year.

In May, investigators arrested four men who they said were involved in the sex trafficking of at least one teenage girl in Fulton and DeKalb counties.

There was also a recent federal court case in which 11 women are suing Red Roof Inn, claiming they were sex trafficked at two Atlanta locations. They claim the motel chain not only knew about the problem, but profited from it. The case ended in an undisclosed settlement.

If you suspect human trafficking, call the National Human Trafficking Hotline at (888) 373-7888. To report suspected human trafficking in Georgia, call the 24-hour Human Trafficking Hotline at (866) 363-4842.

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