January is Human Trafficking Awareness Month.
Oftentimes, human trafficking rings go undetected. It might surprise you as to why…then again, maybe not.
Additionally, the public is not always made aware of the circumstances in certain cases.
Both Portuguese and Guatemalan security agents say they have arrested more than 200 people involved in human trafficking since 20023. Guatemalan Interior Minister Francisco Jimenez said that more than 35 of those arrested were active police officers, foreign and American.
However, it doesn’t just occur in other countries.
Here are some stories from over the years that will make your skin crawl.
A New York police officer along with six others has been charged with trafficking young women and underage girls from Mexico.
The documents were made public on December 14, 2021.
Authorities say the plan was to engage the young girls in prostitution and that the operation had been going on for the past 20 years.
According to officials, for 20 years members of the Queens-based Cid-Hernandez Sex Trafficking Organization forced victims to travel to the U.S. with false promises of employment and a better life. However, once in the U.S they were forced into prostitution.
Village of Brewster police officer Wayne Peiffer was charged with Conspiracy to Commit Hobbs Act, Extortion, Use of Interstate Facilities to Commit Bribery, Conspiracy to Transport Minors, and the Transportation of Minors, Sex Trafficking, Promotion of Prostitution, and other related charges.
The same charges were filed against his co-defendants: Luz Elvira Cardona, Roberto Cesar Cid Dominguez, Cristian Noe Godinez, Blanca Hernandez Morales, and Jose Facundo Zarate Morales.
U.S. Attorney Breon Peace, said, “The defendants conspired to lure young women and minor girls to travel to the United States based on false promises of a better life and forced them into prostitution once they arrived. The defendants received assistance in carrying out this conspiracy from a corrupt police officer who traded the honor of his badge and sworn oath for free sexual services.”
Peiffer was offered free sex with the young girls in exchange for protecting the organization from law enforcement detection and arrest.
The organization controlled driving for drivers to transport young women and girls from Queens often across state lines to meet clients in locations including New Jersey, Brewster, and Connecticut.
The organization “took steps to protect against interference by law enforcement in Brewster.”
Peiffer was facing 25 years in prison. Sadly, in May of 2024, Peiffer received a slap on the wrist and was only sentenced to 36 months in prison for protecting two Queens-based sex-trafficking and prostitution businesses in exchange for free sexual services that were sometimes performed at a police station.
Breon Peace, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York, said in a statement that the defendant received the right punishment.
His Victims disagreed. Stating, “Victims don’t come forward and sex trafficking goes undetected because cops are often involved. There needs to be justice.”
This has been common practice over the years, here are those stories:
In 2023, a St. Louis Missouri police officer, identified by the DOJ as Matthew N. Skaggs, 40, was caught and confessed to multiple counts of sexual assault on a monir while in uniform.
He pleaded guilty in front of U.S. District Judge Matthew T. Schelp to three felony charges: Sex Trafficking, Solicitation of Child Pornography, and Coercion and Enticement of a Minor.
In Skaggs’ plea hearing, he admitted that between Jan. 1, 2022, and Aug. 10, 2022, he provided vape cartridges, alcohol, CBD, and THC to a 13-year-old boy in exchange for nude pictures of the boy. Skaggs also gave the victim vape cartridges after groping him in a police vehicle at a kindergarten center while Skaggs was wearing his police uniform. Skaggs also gave the boy vape cartridges in a middle school boys’ bathroom.
Skaggs repeatedly offered money to another boy when he was between the ages of 14 and 16 for sex and asked for and received a picture of the boy’s genitals, his plea agreement says.
Skaggs also admitted performing a sex act on a third victim, aged 17, twice, and then providing money and alcohol to the minor. Between June 13, 2022, and July 14, 2022, Skaggs paid the boy amounts ranging from $5 to $75 via Cash App. Skaggs also gave the boy cigarettes and vape pods.
At the time of his arrest, Skaggs was attending training to become a school resource officer.
In 2024, Skaggs was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
In November 2024, Portland police officer Christopher Kenagy, 52, was among 35 people arrested during a human trafficking sting. Instead of being charged with a felony, due to being an officer for more than 20 years, his charges were reduced to two misdemeanors.
In January 2025, Kenagy was sentenced to probation only.
A Genesee County sheriff’s deputy turned firefighter, is one of 17 arrested during a human trafficking sting in Flint, Michigan.
Court documents show that Matthew J. Hyde, 40, was charged with Accosting a Child for Immoral Purposes, Sexually Abusive Activity to a Child, and Using a Computer to Commit a Crime.
The investigation began in March 2020 and ended in August 2021.
This is just one of many human trafficking cases involving police to surface within the past 5 years.
In Georgia, U.S Marshals located 26 endangered children and recovered another 13 missing children. The operation spanned 20 Georgia counties.
In Ohio, Marshals recovered 25 children between the ages of 13 and 18.
Information gathered from human trafficking victims who have been caught up in police investigations suggests they rarely seek law enforcement assistance because the victims do not trust the police.
Why?
The answer is that many times police are involved in drug or human trafficking…or both.
A number of police officers have been arrested for their involvement in such cases.
In 2014, DC Metropolitan Police Department Officer Linwood Barnhill, Jr. resigned after investigators found that he had been keeping a 16-year-old girl in his apartment. While he was holding her captive, he had been training her to have sex with men. While he was conditioning her, he took dozens of nude photographs that were later found. The same officer had also set up a meeting with a 15 and 17-year-old. In all three cases, the officer promised the girls they would be famous models. Instead, he was pimping them out to older men.
A second DC officer, Marc Washington, did the same thing to a 15-year-old girl who had run away from home. He made the girl strip and took nude photos of her. The girl told investigators that Washington said taking the photos was “part of the process” for runaway girls. Washington committed suicide after learning that he was being indicted. A search of Washington’s home and phone revealed that he had been involved in human trafficking for nearly five years.
There were 38 girls missing in DC at the time these officers and others were arrested.
Baltimore City police officer Lamin Manneh was arrested after undercover officers saw that a teen had been placing ads online for sex. It was later learned that the officer was the teen’s pimp and was selling her. Manneh would drive the girl to meet those willing to pay.
Mauricio Edgardo Estrada, 28, a Los Angeles police officer, was busted for the human trafficking of a child during an undercover operation.
In Minnesota, multiple police officers, including the Walnut Grove Police Chief, Michael Zeug, were arrested for human trafficking.
Another eight officers — four in Oakland and four in Richmond — were also arrested.
The list goes on and on.
However, the biggest bust came in 1998 when FBI agents, after a 2-year investigation, arrested 44 police officers from five different Ohio agencies for their involvement in a heroin trafficking ring. During the investigation, it was also discovered that many of the officers were involved in a prostitution ring in which they would get the girls high and then prostitute them out.
From 1994 to 1998, more than 600 police officers had been arrested on drug or human trafficking charges. Between 2013 and 2020 that number has more than quadrupled.
Prosecutors say that officers are obviously not always to blame in areas where there is a significant number of missing children. However, they did say that, sadly, oftentimes the bad guys operate undetected because either they know the system or are getting help from inside the system.
The former NYC Police Commissioner was once quoted as saying, ”There is a new form of corruption. It used to be cops took payoffs to look the other way, for what was usually a more benign activity like gambling.”
Now, it is drug trafficking and prostitution.
MCSO sergeant resigns following child erotica allegations, no charges filed
Law abiding citizens should be very concerned, law enforcement obtaining your personal information without warrant
