(CNN) — Modern day slavery is happening on the very streets where we live and work. According to law enforcement officials, human trafficking is only getting worse in the Springfield area. Western Mass News investigated the warning signs parents and caregivers need to look out for.
“I would say this is one of the fastest growing criminal industries in the nation,” said Jane MulQueen, chief of the Special Victims Unit in the Hampden County District Attorney’s office.
It’s hard to believe but take a look around – a runaway, a child left behind with no family. These are the most common targets for those working in the terrifying and very real world of human trafficking. And it’s happening here.
Nico Cotto has been a gang intel instructor for the New England Police Academy for 15 years.
“The sad part about what’s going on with human trafficking is a lot of girls getting involved with these adult gang members,” Cotto said.
He’s talking about cases like that of Milford and Tiana Lewis. The Springfield couple was arrested late last year charged with human trafficking, extortion and charges related to prostitution. Court documents reveal how they lure women in who have nothing, entice them with gifts and money to trade in their safety and security signing their lives away and in a sense becoming someone’s property.
“You see trends in crime. This is trending to some degree,” said Hampden County District Attorney Anthony Gulluni.
It’s an issue that Gulluni is concerned about.
“Sometimes it’s a larger more sophisticated organization. But it is prevalent here in Western Massachusetts it’s something that we’ve been actively working on with our law enforcement partners, and we’ve had some successful investigations and current prosecutions on this,” he said.
In fact the morning of our interview with the District Attorney, 23-year-old Bruce Stevenson of New York had just been locked up – accused of selling women for sex across the East Coast. Chicopee police arrested him after a young woman called, distraught and afraid. Federal agents are still determining how large the trafficking ring really is.
“Gangs have realized that this is a money maker,”MulQueen said, “because they realize you can sell a rock of crack and make money one time but you can sell a human over and over again.”
According to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, one in six runaways reported to their agency was likely a victim of child sex trafficking.
They’re warning parents and caregivers what to look out for, like a history of sexual abuse, a history of running away, signs of abuse, an unstable lifestyle and an unexplained new and extravagant gifts. Often, gang members’ promises of wealth and even drugs entice young girls to the sinister world of sex trafficking.
“A pimp once said if you promise a girl heaven she’ll follow you to hell,” Cotto said.
Now with new initiatives and harsher prosecution, law enforcement and those working within the District Attorney’s office are trying to get to those vulnerable potential victims before gangs and criminals do.
“We’re going to route it out,”Gulluni said, “law enforcement is aware of it and we’re putting in the resources and are aggressively investigating and prosecuting people who are engaged in human trafficking.”
For more signs and warnings for parents and people who work with at risk kids who they believe may be vulnerable to human trafficking click here.
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