Reyes speaks about sting operation

In October, Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes made a secret trip to Colombia as part of a sting operation that rescued 54 children from sex slavery.

Wednesday, he spoke about the experience to Utah State students in Old Main.

“Human trafficking is something that I’ve always known it was there but didn’t realize how prevalent it was, even in communities like Utah,” said Aubrey Tilley, a senior majoring in nursing. “I think being able to hear someone who’s had firsthand experience with that changed the way that I look at it.”

As part of the sting, Reyes teamed with former Special Forces officers and policemen at Operation Underground Railroad, a non-profit that helps rescue children from slavery. His duties included pretending to be bodyguard for the “bait” of the operation, a Salt Lake man posing as a wealthy sex addict from the U.S.

After luring the traffickers to an island with over 50 children, Reyes and company had to maintain their cover and entertain the criminals for more than 50 minutes before authorities arrived.

In his address, Reyes cited justice department estimates that 20-35 million people worldwide are currently enslaved. Roughly 10 percent are believed to be children. Common reasons that people are kidnapped include for sex, hard labor, drug purposes, military service and terrorism.

“Human trafficking has become the second most lucrative crime in the world,” Reyes said. “Even arms dealing has been surpassed by human trafficking.”

Reyes’s involvement with fighting human trafficking began when a tip led to the arrest and imprisonment of an international criminal here in Utah. The man, who had previously been a shot-caller in the notorious Mexican MS-13 gang, had been using his influence to traffic and abuse children at his home in Salt Lake County.

Reyes’s experience with this case raised his awareness of human trafficking.

“Before I became attorney general, I was kind of vaguely aware these things were happening, but I didn’t realize the pervasiveness,” Reyes said.

Since then, Reyes says that human trafficking has been one of his main focuses and has drawn a large amount of the resources he controls. Students in attendance Wednesday seemed equally affected by what they heard.

“What I really liked is the idea of going to a place and helping,” said Henrik Allen, a junior majoring in political science. “In fact, that’s something I would be interested in doing at some point in my life.”

Tilley said she was interested in educating people of the problem.

“I think raising awareness is a really good way,” Tilley said, “just through supporting organizations like Underground Railroad.”

In addition to supporting causes like Operation Underground Railroad or Fight the New Drug — another foundation for which Reyes advocates — students seemed to view the attorney general himself more favorably as a result of the address. Some said they may even change the way the vote as a result.

“I thought it was inspiring how he’s taking his job more seriously than I would think the attorney general would. More than just talking, he has actually gone on an operation and done the work himself.” said Alex Probert, a freshman majoring in communication studies. “That really makes me want to vote for him. I don’t care what his platform is. I’ll support him in whatever he does.”

— levi.henrie@aggiemail.usu.edu