How a Missing Child Report Became a Multi-Jurisdiction Gang-Involved Child Sex Trafficking Ring

In the spring of 2021, a fourteen-year-old child from the Houston area went missing. While NCMEC didn’t know it at the time, this missing incident was about to expose a multi-jurisdiction gang-involved child sex trafficking ring, with connections to at least eight additional missing children. With collaboration from local law enforcement agencies, this case resulted in the arrest of two suspected traffickers who were also brothers. An in-depth discussion of this case will show how incredibly complex child sex trafficking cases can become, and how levels of fear and violence must be considered when there is a nexus to gangs. In addition to the facts of the case, NCMEC Child Sex Trafficking Team analytical resources will be discussed, and how they were implemented in this case at every step to support law enforcement’s efforts to identify, locate, and recover the missing children.