As Miami-Dade welcomes numerous high-profile events in the coming year, Attorney General James Uthmeier and State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle are working to stop any human traffickers who target the county, its residents and visitors.
Uthmeier and Fernandez Rundle just announced a new memorandum of understanding (MOU) through which his Office will become part of her Human Trafficking Task Force and provide additional prosecution, law enforcement and resources support.
That aid, funded with $1.5 million from the state prosecution operation fund, Uthmeier said, isn’t enough to root out the problem, which Florida is ranked third-worst nationally behind California and Texas, according to the National Human Trafficking Hotline.
“It’s a start to properly educate, deter, investigate, detain and punish,” he said. “And you better believe that’s my favorite part of this: punish. We absolutely will.”
Uthmeier said his Office has arrested more than 1,400 child predators in the past year alone and rescued more than 300 children previously reported missing. The old saying, “If you see something, say something,” still holds, he said, and people who witness things that “don’t look right” at various locales — gas stations, rest stops, public transit — should pick up the phone and alert authorities, who will make sure wrongdoers are held to account.
He pointed to Marquette James, whom investigators homed in on after receiving an anonymous tip. They ultimately saved two human trafficking victims and secured a 120-year sentence for the criminal.
Elsewhere in Lake County, police responded to an emergency call from a gas station and, after patrolling the area, found a girl who had been trafficked by two “gruesome guys,” Uthmeier said.
“Those officers that showed up, they did the work, they investigated and ultimately they got the girl to come forward and tell them what happened,” he said. “So, don’t be afraid to speak up. … If you see younger people with older men, people that are engaged in a lot of makeup and sexual attire, there’s a lot of warning signs that others can better educate you on. Pick up the phone, and let us know.”
Uthmeier held his Friday press conference at Camillus House, a Miami homeless shelter, alongside Fernandez Rundle and several key figures in the fight to crack down on human trafficking in South Florida.
Among them: Statewide prosecutor Brad McVay; FIFA World Cup Miami Host Committee co-Chair Rodney Barreto; Kristi’s House CEO Amanda Altman; Family Tree of Life Center survivor-mentor Amanda Altman; Lynn Guyton, who oversees Uthmeier’s Human Trafficking Council; and Office of Statewide Prosecution Special Counsel Rita Peters, whom Uthmeier a “bulldog in the courtroom that no trafficker wants to see.”
Miami-Dade this year is set to host major events of worldwide interest, including the FIFA World Cup, the Formula 1 Miami Grand Prix, the World Baseball Classic, Art Basel Miami Beach, Miami Open Tennis, Ultra Music Festival and NASCAR Championship Weekend, among others.
Fernandez Rundle said Uthmeier’s Office joining her Human Trafficking Task Force “not only strengthens (its) efforts in arresting and prosecuting traffickers, but it also sends an unequivocal, clear message that exploiting our vulnerable children and our youth will never, ever be tolerated.”
It’s also a much-needed development, she continued. Until recently, she said, funding for the Task Force’s undercover operations — conducted in collaboration with more than 70 sworn law enforcement officers — came from South Florida HIDTA and its Executive Director, Hugo Barreta. Those funds have since “dwindled and are no longer available,” she said.
The new funds Uthmeier’s Office is providing, she said, “will be available not only to continue what we do, but to expand so that we can meet the needs of the increase that we can expect with the operations of all those folks coming to town.”
