Fort Pierce police: 19 women were victims of human, sex trafficking
FORT PIERCE — For seven months, police watched two men organize a human and sex trafficking ring in the city that relied on befriending women working as prost i t ut e s a nd get t i ng t hem addicted to heroin.
T h a t ’s h o w a t l e a s t 1 9 wo men e n d e d u p i n t h e human and sex trafficking r i n g c o n c e n t r a t e d a l o n g Okeechobee Road between Interstate 95 and Florida’s Turnpike, cit y police said Thursday.
On Wednesday, police picked up the suspec ted ring leaders of that organization, both of whom are from North Carolina, Fort Pierce police spokesman Ed Cunningham said.
Airial Johnson, 31, already was in the St. Lucie County Jail, records show, and had b e e n s i n c e S e p t e m b e r when he was booked on a human-trafficking charge from Louisiana and drug-possession charges.
Fort Pierce police picked up Curtis Travis, 31, Wednesday afternoon on human, sex and heroin trafficking charges, police said. Travis had 4.1 grams of heroin on him when he was arrested, according to police.
The monthslong investigation started with an anonymous tip, Cunningham said. Officers made prostitution-related arrests, surveyed the motels and hotels where the trafficking was believed to be happening and pieced the operation together, he said.
The investigation is still active, Cunningham said, but the suspected ring leaders are behind bars.
Travis is being held in the county jail on an $800,000 bond, Cunningham said. He said Johnson will remain in jail on the Louisiana charges.