Next month’s Kentucky Derby will draw thousands of guests to Louisville, but not all of them will come willingly. As this year’s Kentucky Derby approaches, Attorney General Andy Beshear said his office is ramping up efforts to identify and prosecute human traffickers.
Beshear said his office is working with the hotel and trucking industries to teach employees how to recognize signs of human trafficking.
Beshear said, "With all these partnerships, if we do this right, there will be no place to hide. These traffickers will have no place to hide.”
In 2016, the state attorney general’s assisted with 28 human trafficking investigations. Large sporting events can be magnets for human trafficking.
Last year during Derby week, a 14-year-old girl was rescued from her abuser. The girl had been brought to Louisville from Michigan to work as a prostitute. Her abuser was sentenced in federal court in Louisville this week for a prostitution sting coinciding with the Kentucky Derby.
