Colorado police sergeant reveals how human traffickers target vulnerable children: Happening in our backyard

Human traffickers are turning children’s hunger, desperation and need for affection into tools of exploitation, a Colorado city police sergeant warned after his dedicated unit’s first year brought dozens of survivors to safety.The Aurora Police Department (APD) Human Trafficking Unit opened 53 investigations, arrested 28 suspects and recovered 29 survivors, including 15 minors, in its first year. APD Sgt.Joseph Sullivan told Fox News Digital the work is exposing abuse that residents may never suspect is happening around them.According to the U.S.

Department of Homeland Security (DHS), "human trafficking involves the use of force, fraud, or coercion to obtain some type of labor or commercial sex act."MIKE WALTZ, TIM TEBOW LAUNCH EFFORT TO COMBAT ONLINE CHILD EXPLOITATION: 'IT'S HAPPENING IN THEIR BACKYARD'Federal law enforcement reported 36 truck-stop-based instances of human trafficking in 2023, according to the National Human Trafficking Hotline.(iStock)"It is happening in our backyard, not just in those other places," Sullivan said.For Sullivan, one teenage girl’s plea captures both the urgency of that mission and the difficult road survivors face after investigators reach them.The 16-year-old had been brought to Aurora — a city of just over 400,000 people outside Denver — from another town by her boyfriend, who then left her there, Sullivan said. Trying to survive, she was sexually exploited by people around an apartment complex in exchange for somewhere to stay, drugs or food.SIX UNDERAGE GIRLS RECOVERED IN SWEEPING OPERATION TARGETING NOTORIOUS TRAFFICKING CORRIDORPeople hold signs calling for an end to human trafficking.

Aurora police’s dedicated Human Trafficking Unit recovered 29 survivors, including 15 minors, in its first year.(Stephen Maturen/Getty Images, File)During an interview, she asked a detective to find those responsible."'I really hope that you can find the people that are doing this because it really hurts what I’m having to d...