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Sex trafficking can be a hard issue to approach in a community, but it is not impossible, according to two members of ARISE Project for Humanity, founder Williamson Sintyl and board member Coco Berthmann while at a Northern Arizona University event. Berthmann, now 25, said if she had not escaped her life of being trafficked for sex, she would be dead.
Coco Berthmann: I was trafficked for the first 15 years of my life by my own family. By the age of 15 I was able to escape. Initially, I didn’t know I was trafficked because it was my normal.
FBI arrested Alan Bryant, 46 for sexual conduct with a 16-year-old girl with autism and a second victim also asserts that Bryant offered him money for sex when he was 13-years-old.
“These appalling individuals are predators who sexually prey on our youth. They are the filth of our society and every effort will be made to ensure these monsters are prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” Sheriff Doug Schuster of Kingman, AZ. said in a press release.
Tennessee Jackson, 37, and her husband, Donald Jackson, were arrested Jan. 11 in Glendale, AZ. and charged with multiple counts of drug possession and child sex trafficking, KNXV reported on Wednesday. Police said Tennessee Jackson forced the girls to pose nude for photos that were then posted on social media, KNXV reported.
Police say there was drug dealing, money laundering, and child sex trafficking all happening inside one Glendale home. Tennessee Jackson is now charged with 18 felonies, nearly half of them are child sex trafficking charges. She also is charged with multiple counts of sexual exploitation of a minor
Research indicates a large share of sex and labor trafficking victims interact with a health care provider at some point while they are being exploited.
Sex trafficking and your children is a combination no parent wants to imagine but is a very real threat in the Valley. The latest numbers from the FBI show in 2017 Arizona was third in the nation for human trafficking offenses and had the highest number of arrests. Experts warn it is impacting people from all walks of life.
Eight people have been arrested in connection with a suspected human trafficking operation linked to massage parlors in Lake Havasu City and Bullhead City in western Arizona, authorities said Tuesday.
An Arizona fugitive who was arrested earlier this month is now facing additional charges of molestation and battery.
Finding new and innovative ways to combat the demand for purchased sex, raise awareness to this nationwide epidemic, and provide safe environments for victims.