Here's a behind-the scenes look at a Stanislaus County human trafficking crackdown
STANISLAUS COUNTY — CBS13 got a behind-the-scenes look at a Stanislaus County Sheriff's Office operation that cracked down on human trafficking.
Law enforcement and nonprofit groups teamed up across the state to stop the crime and give victims a way out. Footage from a Stanislaus County sheriff's deputy body camera shows one dramatic raid of a massage business with guns drawn.
Deputies, including members of a special victims unit, raided one location. In another, deputies could be seen holed up in a motel room as decoys.
These suspects allegedly committing the crimes of prostitution, caught and cuffed, are often also the victims of human trafficking. This statewide operation called Reclaim and Rebuild offers an opportunity to get help.
Stanislaus County Sheriff Jeff Dirkse showed CBS13 the work his office did over a week to crack down on the statewide problem.
"These are very large intensive operations," Dirkse said. "An arrest for prostitution is not ultimately going to solve this problem. Getting them out of that lifestyle and safe and somewhere into something else, that is the solution."
The Stanislaus County nonprofit Without Permission coordinated with law enforcement in the raids to hand out backpacks packed with comfort and personal care items as a peace offering to victims willing to take their help and break the cycle of human trafficking.
"We've got to remember that many of these young ladies have been...they're victimized through force, fraud, or coercion," Without Permission CEO Troy Stein said.
Sheriff Dirkse said that many victims caught in this operation were first smuggled across the southern border and are forced into sex work to repay their debts, moving from one location in a circuit across the state.
"It starts in Sacramento, comes down over to the Bay Area, hits those towns, you know, down I-5, through the major valley towns down in Los Angeles, out to Las Vegas, back up 99, and then kind of repeat," Dirkse said.
Sheriff Dirkse reports that his department made 77 arrests in this one-week operation. They discovered some of the victims of human trafficking were from as far away as China.
