The Human Cost of Human Trafficking

Members of the Right Club of South Collier County (RCSCC), gathered at Mackle Park on May 8 to listen to experts in human trafficking led by Trent Steele, co-founder of the Anti-Predator Project, Inc., and Lt. Wade Williams of the INTERCEPT Task Force of the Collier County Sheriff’s Office (CCSO). 

Steele works with a team of highly trained operators in conjunction with local, state, federal, and international law enforcement to find justice for the families of human trafficking. It is a full-service non-profit investigative agency that is involved in the location and recovery of American children who have been kidnapped or sold on the black market, witness/victim protection, and missing children. Trent added, “You are dealing with the darkest day of your life, whether you are dealing with your own exploitation or the exploitation of loved ones, and the last thing you have to do is worry about payment.” The Anti-Predator Project is provided free of charge to victims and their families.”

There are two types of human trafficking: 

• Sex Trafficking: Victims are forced to work in the illegal sex trade. Approximately 70%-80% of trafficking is for the sex trade. (randomhistory.com)
• Labor Trafficking: Victims are forced to work off a debt, often in the service or agriculture industry. (randomhistory.com)

It is a myth that sex trafficking is a problem only in developing countries. It is a huge problem worldwide and a very real problem in Florida. 

The top five states for human trafficking, according to humantraffickinghotline.org, are California, Texas, Florida, New York, and Ohio, and according to Steele, the US is one of the top destinations in the world for sex trafficking. As many as over 50,000 people, mostly consisting of women and pre-pubescent children, are trafficked into the US from all over the world every year. People with money can buy girls and buy labor because the US can afford this. Human trafficking is now tied with illegal narcotics trafficking as the most profitable crime in the world, at an annual estimated $150 billion a year, worldwide.

According to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), over the past 30 years, over 30 million children have been sexually exploited through human trafficking. According to USAToday.com, there are an estimated 40 million people being held as modern-day slaves worldwide.

The second speaker was Lt. Wade Williams from the Collier County Sheriff’s Office. Williams supervises the Collier County INTERCEPT Task Force and Victim Services, which encompasses child exploitation, human trafficking, and victim and senior services. Members are trained to help with crisis intervention for victims and survivors of violent crimes.

He shared several high-profile cases in which the Collier County INTERCEPT Task Force had been involved in. In August 2024, they conducted an enforcement operation at multiple suspected massage businesses in Collier County. In 2025, the Collier County Sheriff’s Office led a multi-agency operation, which resulted in more than a dozen arrests and the closure of 13 illicit massage establishments. The goal is to dismantle illegal operations and reduce the exploitation of potential victims.

Williams also shared his experiences with online predators, how they find their victims, and how to combat this growing problem. Williams said that child exploitation and human trafficking are primarily facilitated through online digital platforms. Williams shared that victims are lured not through the normal social media sites but through different child gaming applications such as Rec Room and Roblox. Predators engage with the children and then move to SKYPE, where victims are manipulated into various sexual acts and are paid. These videos are shared through global trading networks and with other predators around the world.

You can learn more about the INTERCEPT Task Force at www.colliersheriff.org. 

To learn more about Trent Steele and the Anti-Predator Project, visit their website at www.antipredatorproject.org.

To learn more about the Right Club of South Collier County, visit website: www.rcscc.us.