In a troubling development, a city in the southern United States is gaining notoriety as a hub for human trafficking. This rise is attributed to its strategic location at the crossroads of major highways, an increasing demand for inexpensive agricultural labor, and the presence of organized crime groups.

According to recent data from Charlotte’s Metro Human Trafficking Task Force, 106 minors became victims of trafficking in the city last year. Alarmingly, about half of these children were only 15 years old or younger, highlighting the vulnerability of the youth in this region.

This figure represents a significant increase compared to previous years, as the number of trafficked children ranged between 45 and 60 annually from 2018 through 2022. This upward trend is causing concern among local authorities and advocates who are striving to combat this grave issue.

On a broader scale, the National Human Trafficking Hotline reported 301 cases of human trafficking across North Carolina in 2024, involving a total of 580 victims. While the majority of these incidents involved sex trafficking, there has been a noticeable rise in cases related to forced labor exploitation in recent years.

The vast majority of last year’s cases were sex trafficking, but the proportion of victims exploited for forced labor has risen steadily in recent years.

Overall, there were more case involving children than any year in the past decade. 

Charlotte has also become the focus of an immigration enforcement surge, with ICE and DHS agents raiding homes and businesses across the city overnight, prompting protests from local residents. 

Charlotte, North Carolina , is emerging as a human trafficking hotspot (file image)

Aubriana Recinos, 4, from North Carolina, was found in Texas with human traffickers in 2019 after she went missing for 53 days

The number of cases and victims in North Carolina recorded by NHTH fluctuated each year, which experts said was mostly due to how many operations were busted.

Cases rose last year from 235 in 2023 and victims from 394, and there were 224 cases and 707 victims in 2022. Victims peaked at 1,046 a decade ago.

North Carolina is now on par with similarly sized Georgia, which has long been a known trafficking hotspot due to its major highways and travel corridors. 

Georgia had 248 cases with 800 victims in 2022, 267 and 503 in 2023, and 342 and 573 last year – a huge drop from before the pandemic when the number of victims peaked at 2,230 in 2017.

Ohio, another state of comparable size, has had 258 to 334 cases and 430 to 509 victims annually over the past three years.

Charlotte’s appeal to traffickers is logistical, experts said.

The city sits at a key junction between the north, southeast, and west, with a busy interstate network that offers traffickers multiple routes to move victims and use Charlotte as a ‘pit stop’.

‘A lot of these traffickers are running victims and may start in South Florida. From South Florida, they go to Atlanta, and from Atlanta, they pass through Charlotte. Oftentimes there, they may put them in safe houses,’ private investigator Toby Braun told Fox News.

Data collected by the Charlotte Metro Human Trafficking Task Force identified 106 minors trafficked in the city last year, about half aged 15 or younger. This was about the same as 2023, but rose sharply from the 45 to 60 recorded each year from 2018 to 2022.

Dozens of immigrants trafficked and exploited by a human smuggling ring across multiple US states, which prosecutors said victimized thousands more

They were hidden in cramped boxes concealed as cargo on the back of a semi-truck

Beyond the data, officials are also sounding the alarm. 

US Attorney Dena King, who presides over the Western District of North Carolina, said last year the number of prosecutions for human trafficking cases was up 50 per cent in Charlotte in the past decade. 

However, this is only a tiny sliver of the total number of cases tracked by statistics.  

‘These are incredibly difficult cases to prosecute,’ King told WSOC.

‘I definitely don’t think that the number six is a true adequate representation of how frequently this crime is occurring within our district.’

Nationally, human trafficking referrals to federal prosecutors rose 49 percent between 2011 and 2021, and actual prosecutions doubled, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics.

North Carolina’s thriving agricultural industry and other sectors provide opportunities for forced labor. Last year, most labor-trafficking victims worked as domestic workers, followed by agriculture, construction, and food service. 

Charlotte is also the latest epicenter of immigration crackdowns as the Department of Homeland Security launched a ‘surge’ into the city – sparking protests

Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents raided homes and businesses across the city overnight, sparking mass protests from locals

Protestors set up outside of Manolo’s Bakery amidst federal law enforcement on November 17  in Charlotte

Victims were mostly female, but 63 cases last year involved males.

Traffickers are increasingly using the internet to groom their victims through social media, dating apps, and online gaming.

Many were lured in because they lived hard lives without homes or much food, but victims from all socio-economic groups were among the victims.

‘[Traffickers] can be boyfriends or classmates. We’ve seen cases with coaches and people that you would never really expect, and I think that’s what makes them dangerous – the fact that they can be individuals that are hiding in plain sight,’ Braun said.