WKRN, Nashville, Tennessee News, Weather and Sports |TBI discovers high numbers of trafficking incidents in Tenn.
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NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The state of Tennessee has compiled some alarming numbers on the amount of human sex trafficking incidents that have occurred throughout the state.
A six month TBI study found that four counties have at least 100 trafficking cases involving minors in the past two years.
Last November, at least four Somali girls in the Mid-State were found to be victims of sex trafficking.
"This case is about a group of men bringing young girls, some as young as 12-years-old into this district and prostituting those girls in apartments and hotel rooms in Nashville," U.S. Attorney Jerry Martin said.
Incidents such as the one that occurred last fall caught the attention of state lawmakers who requested a study of human sex trafficking.
On Wednesday, the TBI offered a limited briefing of the study to a Tennessee House subcommittee.
"In that study it shows that there could be from 2,000 to 4,000 minors trafficked every year in Tennessee," Collette Bercu said, who runs a locally based international group that helps victims of human trafficking.
She told Nashville's News 2 child sex trafficking is an epidemic in Tennessee.
"This is big business, we need to look at it like that and the same people that are selling guns and drugs are also selling people right down to Mom and Pop," Bercu explained.
According to Bercu, the TBI study said that 79% of state investigators, prosecutors and social workers do not feel they were adequately trained to recognize or investigate human trafficking cases.
The TBI plans to release the full report by May 1. The report will include recommendations for lawmakers on how to improve the problem.
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