Congressman Derek Schmidt is cosponsoring the Trafficking Survivors Relief Act, which would provide relief to survivors of human trafficking who commit nonviolent crimes as a direct result of being a victim of trafficking. Don’t think human trafficking affects our area? Think again. Franklin County Sheriff, Jeff Richards says human trafficking takes on different forms locally compared to other parts of the country. Richards says it mostly consists of labor trafficking.
Richards says cartels make more money in trafficking people than they do in trafficking substances. He says most of the drugs being seized/recovered in our area can be linked back, through lab results, to cartels, south of the border. While Franklin County does not see sex trafficking, there is cartel operated human smuggling activities.
