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COLUMBIA, Miss. (WDAM) – The Columbia Police Department arrested seven people and are investigating others after a weekend child exploitation and human trafficking operation.
Operation Dollhouse was conducted Friday by the CPD’s Major Crimes Division and Crime Suppression Team after weeks of preparation and partnerships with multiple non-government organizations that provided logistics, victim services, a state-of-the-art command center, surveillance, subject matter experts and evidence retrieval.
ST. CLOUD — The COVID-19 pandemic hasn’t lessened the need for services for human trafficking victims, but it has changed some of the types of services used and how shelters operate.
Jeffrey Higgins, 48, of Independence, MO, began to post the victim on escort websites against her will and would not allow the victim to have a job and had emptied her bank account.
James L. Rodgers, 30, of Farmington, MO, has been charged with one count of sexual trafficking of a child first degree and one count of sexual trafficking of a child second degree. Investigators said Rodgers contacted the children over the internet and the interactions were sexual in nature.
Already a registered sex offender, Jeremy David Rogers, 44, of Chesterfield, MO, was charged today in U.S. District Court in St. Louis with sex trafficking of a child. Rogers paid $200 to a 17-year-old St. Louis County high school athlete for sex. A criminal complaint claims that Rogers reached out to the teen on Snapchat. Rogers pleaded guilty last year to attempted sexual exploitation of a minor in Boone County and was sentenced to five years of probation.
Gary Wiggins, 49, and Meghann Wiggins, 34 of Burnet County, MO. face human trafficking charges related to a July 2018 investigation. The two knowingly trafficked four boys and made them do forced labor and services. The Burnet County Sheriff’s Office removed eight males ages 10-17 years from the Joshua Home facility. If convicted, they could each face up to 99 years in prison.
Kansas City, MO – A 24-year-old man, Eh Tah Ger from a small Missouri town has been sentenced to federal prison on charges of taking a 12-year-old victim across state lines for criminal sexual activity. During the time he had the victim, Ger admitted to engaging in intercourse with the child multiple times.
Just this last week, 24 people in Independence Missouri were arrested with connections to human trafficking. Kansas City is considered high risk because of the geographical location, central in the United States, and easy highway access in the transportation of human victims.
The posters are required to be placed in or near bathrooms in hotels, airports, train and bus stations, urgent care centers, emergency rooms, strip clubs, women’s health centers, abortion facilities, family planning clinics, truck stops, roadside rest areas and more.
Greg Stephen, a prominent of Monticello, Iowa basketball coach was sentenced Thursday to 180 years in prison for soliciting explicit images, capturing secret nude video and photos and inappropriately touching hundreds of boys over the course of almost two decades.
Finding new and innovative ways to combat the demand for purchased sex, raise awareness to this nationwide epidemic, and provide safe environments for victims.