FBI announces rescue of 21 human trafficking victims in Bay Area
SAN FRANCISCO — The FBI in San Francisco announced they've found 21 victims of sex trafficking as part of a nationwide enforcement campaign called "Operation Cross Country."
The FBI worked with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and several Bay Area law enforcement agencies. Three separate operations took place in Contra Costa County from July 19 to Sunday, leading to the arrest of a 24-year-old man from Oakland and a 33-year-old man from Sacramento.
Elizabeth Quiroz knows what it's like to be a victim of human trafficking. She was a victim for nearly 12 years, but she is making a difference to save other young women trapped in a life of abuse and crime.
"When I was 26, I was arrested for the last time. I had a 3-month-old baby boy that I needed to think about," Quiroz said. "And at that time, I realized I needed to end the cycle that was in my family."
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She says she met her trafficker when she was just 16 years old. It began with a stranger first giving her compliments, then gifts, then a hope of a better life than what she was experiencing at home.
But it just led to a life of crime and trauma.
"At the time, the point of me being arrested, there were no services. I was treated as a criminal, looked down upon," remembered Quiroz. "Because of course, I was an addict. I was selling drugs and smoked my own supply because of all the years of trauma and being trafficked."
She applauded the FBI's latest operation that helped locate four children and 17 adults. She feels the key to really reaching the victims is to provide the right type of resources.
"It's important that we continue to bring advocates, even survivors, to be part of the situation where the victims can relate and the victims can understand because they're not going to talk to somebody in a uniform," Quiroz said.
That's why Quiroz co-founded Redemption House to give victims the support and tools they need to turn their lives around.
"Once they realize the power is theirs, once they get out of that life and realize the power is theirs and their voice is theirs, they will be able to be set free from all of that," she said.
Quiroz said the resources she was provided behind bars truly changed her life. Now, she is a social worker with a master's degree. While her focus is to help others, she is rewarded with each victim she saves.
"A lot of times their traffickers are not prosecuted or arrested. Or their abusers go unnoticed," Quiroz explained. "So I tell them to keep sharing and keep speaking and that will be a form of healing. So it heals me too when I do this."
Quiroz said she had three traffickers during her 12 years. None of them were ever arrested for human trafficking.