NORFOLK, Va. — Human trafficking is classified as the fastest-growing criminal industry in the world, with millions of victims worldwide.
Master manipulators coerce people from all walks of life to engage in what FBI Norfolk’s Special Agent in Charge describes as “modern-day slavery.”
But how big of a problem is it in Virginia?
"A lot of times the victims are walking among us," said Special Agent in Charge of FBI Norfolk Brian Dugan.
With $150 billion and 28 million victims worldwide, it’s a criminal industry Dugan and the FBI have spent years investigating.
"Human trafficking is modern-day slavery. Someone is working somebody over for their own financial gain," he said.
It’s a life Olivia spent 15 years trying to escape.
"He was supposed to be my boyfriend and we began dating," she told a room full of Regent University students.
A man she met on Facebook, turned into her boss and captor.
"For about two years, I stayed with him being abused and trafficked at multiple hotels, strip clubs, apartments, basically anywhere," Olivia said. "Unfortunately, he tried to kill me and my daughter, but we both survived."
She escaped to Virginia, before falling in love with another man who coerced her into sex work again.
It's a pattern Dugan says is a common one.
"The traffickers are master manipulators. They can pick out the aspect of the person’s personality that they can pick onto either through romance or through threat to get the person to start serving for them," he said.
When asked how big of a problem is human trafficking in Hampton Roads and Eastern Virginia, Dugan replied, "It’s definitely happening both on the labor and the sex trafficking sides. It’s probably happening more than we like to think."
According to the National Human Trafficking Hotline’s database, more than 10,000 cases were identified in 2021 involving close to 17,000 victims nationwide. Of those cases, 140 of them were in Virginia.
The majority happened in California, Florida, and Texas.
"This is a crime that happens in plain sight in almost every community — rural, suburban, or urban," said Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares. "In Hampton Roads, particularly because we're very transient, we have a very transient population."
He said these criminals are hard to catch.
"On a global scale, the vast majority of victims are never actually identified and that's part of what is so heartbreaking," said Miyares. "We cannot get these traffickers off the street unless their victims are willing to testify."
Both Miyares and Dugan said so much of their success in finding and prosecuting these traffickers comes from their victims speaking up.
"We’ve actually lost cases or not attempted cases where the victims either don’t want to cooperate or it would retraumatize them to cooperate," Dugan explained. "The biggest thing is finding the victims and getting them out of the lifestyle. The investigations come second."
Miyares and Dugan said their offices are pushing to find and prosecute these criminals.
On the FBI side, Dugan said they’re always online, watching.
"We have a thing called Operation Cross Country and that’s a surge where the FBI takes the lead and for two days or a week, we and all of our partners do nothing but either lures or we go out and address cases that we know," he said. "We put out a lure to see if anybody is interested in finding a young girl. We'll masquerade in some way shape or form and see if something proverbially bites."
He said not only does that bring out the traffickers, but it also acts as a deterrent.
"I'm not reticent to talk about this because you never know, you might be out there online hitting somebody up thinking, 'I'm gonna find a 10-year-old girl,' and it's the cops. So, if that precludes some of these guys from doing this, knowing that we've got a lot of agencies that are using this technique, I'm fine with that because it does work."
Miyares said it's all about getting agencies to work together.
"There is nobody that I know that is in the human trafficking space going after these bad guys that don't derive an enormous amount of satisfaction going after these scumbags and going after really some of the worst criminal elements you'll ever find."
Dugan said the work they do tracking down these criminals is taxing.
"The work we do is heart-wrenching. It's a work of passion," he said. "It's the only place as SAC I will not mandate people to go to."
Hear more about the work his agents do in the video below:
Dugan and Miyares said there is no clear data to indicate if human trafficking, both labor and sex trafficking, has increased over the years as a whole, or if the conversation is just more prominent.
"I do think people are more aware of it. I think the reality is getting through COVID and the lockdowns had an enormous impact on our society. We have seen a rise in what's called familial trafficking. People that have gotten in the throes of addiction that have been willing to traffic their own daughter or their own sibling to try to feed their own addiction."
Governor Glenn Youngkin created a Human Trafficking Task Force statewide.
New laws now make training to spot trafficking mandatory for college freshmen and certain businesses like hotels. To help convince victims to come forward, there is also a victim witness protection fund.
Within the last two years, a law allowing affirmative defense for trafficking victims was passed as well as a vacatur law. That means certain convictions for trafficking survivors could be wiped from their record.
Olivia is the first trafficking survivor in Virginia to benefit, with misdemeanor prostitution charges expunged from her record. It's a sign she’s starting over.
"I know firsthand that it feels like it’s the only thing that you’ll ever be able to do or you’ll never ever get out of it or you’ll never have a normal life, but I’m living proof that you can," she said.
Something both Miyares and SAC Dugan say helps more than people realize is if you see something, say something. They say tips from people just like you are invaluable.
If you see someone who does not have control over their own documents, showing signs of abuse, withdrawn, or even branding on their skin, they ask you to take note and let law enforcement know.