A lot has been made in the past several years about human trafficking during the NFL’s Super Bowl. Allegedly, football’s biggest day is also the biggest day in the United States for sex trafficking, particularly in the game’s host city.
While it’s pretty common to hear people talking about it, some sources suggest that some of the Super Bowl sex trafficking reports are exaggerated or misleading. But leading up to Super Bowl 51 (two weeks ago in Houston, Texas), law enforcement officials around the country arrested as many as 522 would-be sex buyers and traffickers—including 183 potential buyers and 9 traffickers in Houston itself.
The arrests, according to multiple sources, 23 law enforcement agencies in 14 states participated in a massive sting operation starting three weeks before Super Bowl Sunday and leading all the way up to the big game.
This could be one of the biggest sex trafficking stings in U.S. history.