A Texas man is in jail after being arrested for human trafficking near Iowa. A deputy with the Calcasieu Parish Sheriff’s Office pulled over Kevin Ricks, 27, for a traffic stop . An investigation revealed Ricks was allegedly trafficking the passenger for sexual purposes.
While this suspect is now sitting in jail, a U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Louisiana explained why the Bayou state can be particularly vulnerable to human trafficking.
“It highlights the issue we have, given our geography that we have here and where we’re located,” U.S. attorney Brandon Brown said.
He said West Louisiana has two major interstate corridors coming from Texas: I-10 and I-20.
“A lot of people are trafficked on the border from Mexico, from Texas, from the western part of the United States, headed to the east coast, so we see a lot of people that are passing through or intending to pass through,” he added.
Brown also added that there are other types of human trafficking, aside from sexual purposes.