Like many other Wyoming communities, Sweetwater County has a problem when it comes to sex trafficking.
It’s been a long-standing issue, according to Detective Sgt. Michelle Hall with the Sweetwater County Sheriff’s Office (SCSO), which is why she initiated a training session and subsequent sting operation last month that led to the arrest of four men, including a former state legislator.
The four-day session was by led by human trafficking detective Joe Scaramucci of Waco, Texas, who is leading the charge nationwide to stamp out trafficking.
After attending one of Scaramucci’s Wyoming training sessions in December, Hall reached out to the event’s organizer to see about setting up a session in Sweetwater County.
“There is a huge issue with sex trafficking here,” she said. “And there always has been. I attended Scaramucci’s training, and it inspired me to do more.”
Scaramucci’s training session in Rock Springs was organized by Terri Markham, the co-founder of Uprising, a Sheridan non-profit group focused on human trafficking education and outreach.
Both Scaramucci and Markham stress the importance of having law enforcement agencies work with victim advocates and anti-trafficking groups to address the problems by offering its victims the resources they need to escape their traffickers.
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