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A Columbia truck driver, recognizing the signs a young woman was a victim of sex trafficking, was able to connect her with the Stop Human Trafficking Coalition of Central Missouri.
Human trafficking in Columbia: Victim advocates urge education columbiatribune.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from columbiatribune.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
The operation was just one part of an ongoing investigation, Columbia Police Department Assistant Chief Jeremiah Hunter said Monday.
There wasn t any one incident that jumpstarted the investigation, he added. This has been an operation that has been planned for several months with the (Missouri) Attorney General s Office and the Missouri Highway Patrol, Hunter said. There was not a tip or anything that kind of triggered the operation. This was a planned investigation that took a lot of resources and additional agencies to come together to make happen.
The investigation was about connecting dots between seemingly disparate incidents, Hunter said. The department and the other agencies were looking for patterns.