Human Trafficking: A Global & Local Problem

By: Jim Niedelman | WNCT
Published: November 17, 2009

As tragic and troubling as the Shaniya Davis case is, it's perhaps just as troubling to know that it's not an isolated incident.

Investigators say human trafficking is the fastest growing criminal enterprise in the world.

It's second only to the drug trade overall.

There's a good chance you've encountered it without ever knowing it.

Little Shaniya Davis' death seems incomprehensible, but not to Chief John Guard at the Pitt County Sheriff's Office.

"It's just wrong on so, so many levels," said Chief John Guard with the Pitt County Sheriff’s Office.

Guard supervises human trafficking investigations for all of Eastern North Carolina.

The crime takes many forms: foreigners smuggled into this country for an extremely high price and forced to work off a debt that's impossible to repay, forced labor on farms and women held captive for sex.

Guard says even high school or college students can be enticed by a false promise of a modeling career and wind up trapped in prostitution.

It's all about the bottom line for the people with the power.

"There is a lot of money to be made in this,” Guard said. “It's nothing more than, than modern day slavery."

The popular television series C.S.I. spent a week dramatizing the human trafficking problem in this country.

But, it's all too real.

Last year, federal investigators charged 82 people and convicted 77 in 40 human trafficking cases.

Guard says there are signals that could indicate someone's trapped in slave-like conditions.

One is someone who lives and works in the same place.

Another sign is a worker who’s in debt to his or her employer.

There are also security systems that keep people outside or inside a building.

Those are just a few.

"It's just a crime that we need to turn the lights on if you will,” Guard said. “That it's almost hiding in plain sight."

Guard says there's no doubt it's happening in our backyard.

People can help by opening their eyes to an eye-opening problem.

Chief guard told Nine On Your Side his division is currently investigating several human trafficking cases in Eastern North Carolina.

He's not allowed to give out the details.