Jacksonville, Nassau sheriffs announce 50+ arrested in human trafficking operation

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — More than 50 people were arrested from across Northeast Florida as a result of a nationwide human trafficking operation.

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Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters and Nassau County Sheriff Bill Leeper stood beside the FBI and Naval Criminal Investigative Service to announce the arrests locally as part of a national “Operation Cross Country.”

“It’s very real in our community. It is a web of crimes that not only typically hides in plain sight. But also feeds on social disenfranchisement of its victims,” Sheriff Waters said.

More than 30 people were arrested in Jacksonville in two days for the operation. Sheriff Waters highlighted two cases specifically. Robert Horvath and Michael Brockway were arrested in sting operations while deputies said they were traveling to have sex with underaged children.

24 people were arrested in Nassau County where Sheriff Leeper said their focus for the operation was on prostitution.

“A lot of these prostitutes are victims of the sex trade. They go into it before they are adults and end up trapped in it. It gives us an opportunity to get them out of that trade,” he said.

“For a woman to end up that way, something has happened to her in her childhood,” Sandra Shin, the founder of Hope for Freedom, said.

The pain of human trafficking is personal for her. Shin was sold for sex by her mother in Jamaica at just 11 years old. She has since escaped and moved to Jacksonville.

“There are times when I still break down. I still cry. That can never go away.”

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• Hope for Freedom is aimed at preventing human trafficking. Shin said there are three key signs you should watch out for. They include:
• The child suddenly has expensive clothes or accessories
• Child distances themselves from friends, and hangs out instead with an older crowd
• Asks their friends to cover for them

Along with Hope for Freedom, Shin recommended other local resources like Her Song, Rethreaded, DEMP, SOAP, Grace Ministry of Helping Hands, and Her Song.

Operation Cross Country started in 2003 and has recovered more than 6,700 children from human trafficking, according to the FBI. 2,750 people have been convicted and face anywhere from 25 years to life in prison.

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