From staff reports
State and local officials provided updates in the fight against human trafficking during an annual meeting of the Lowcountry Human Trafficking Task Force on Monday, Jan. 27, at the Hardeeville Recreation Center.
January is National Human Trafficking Awareness Month.
The State Human Trafficking Task Force’s annual report shows the state investigated 285 tips related to human trafficking in 2024. Seventy-five of those tips came from the Lowcountry, with most of the victims being minors. The complete 2024 report is available at https://www.scag.gov/human-trafficking/data-reports.
At the conclusion of 2024, 37 different defendants had a total of 62 charges pending for human trafficking in the South Carolina State Courts.
More than a half dozen people were arrested in 2024 and face charges in connection with a human sex trafficking operation operating out of Beaufort and Jasper Counties.
The Lowcountry Human Trafficking Task Force is comprised of federal, state and local law enforcement professionals, members of state prosecutors’ offices, victim-services providers and others interested in creating a community free from human trafficking. The regional task force is a member of the larger State Human Trafficking Task Force, created to prevent human trafficking, to protect trafficked victims and to prosecute traffickers.
