Berrien County Sheriff Chuck Heit says police targeting human trafficking on Wednesday arrested 15 men who had hoped to receive sex for money. Police are withholding details because they plan more stings.
The sheriff says the sting started with a training on human trafficking that Pokagon Tribal Police gave other area police agencies. Wednesday’s efforts targeted the men who pay for the services.
Heit declined to say how men connect with these women.
”There’s some technology that’s used in there, so you start communicating on that with individuals and when they come to think they’re going to end up with getting into a sexual encounter, they end up meeting with police," Heit says. "My understanding is it was people ranging in age from 28 to 70.”
Heit declined to reveal more because he says police plan to conduct more stings and they don’t want to tip off the men.
“We obviously want the public to know but we also need to make sure that we’re still able to do what led to the success yesterday.”
Heit says police have offered services to help the women get out of their situation.
“We were able to give help and a lot of that came from the training that was done so we’re hopeful that they’ll take advantage of it.”
The arrests come as St. Joseph County officials are considering an ordinance aimed at stopping human trafficking at massage parlors.
