{"id":393053,"date":"2026-09-07T18:42:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-07T18:42:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/393053\/"},"modified":"2026-09-07T18:42:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-07T18:42:10","slug":"2-fiu-students-helped-investigators-track-human-traffickers-during-world-cup-nbc-6-south-florida","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/393053\/","title":{"rendered":"2 FIU students helped investigators track human traffickers during World Cup \u2013 NBC 6 South Florida"},"content":{"rendered":"

Subscribe to our YouTube channel! NBC6 South Florida <\/a><\/p>\n

As Miami welcomed thousands this summer for the World Cup, two undergraduate students from Florida International University helped investigators with identifying human traffickers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe took part in taking another bad person off the streets to know that they can never hurt anybody else again,\u201d shared Sophia Marticorena.<\/p>\n

Marticorena and Klaudia Litardo are both seniors at Florida International University\u2019s Jack Gordon Institute, and this summer\u00a0they\u00a0were given the opportunity to work alongside the Miami-Dade State Attorney\u2019s Office as intelligence analysts. <\/p>\n

\u201cI will say…we knew that we wanted to be in the field combating these types of crimes; we already had that idea. I will say it opened our eyes to a different perspective of what’s the reality of how the world actually works,\u201d explained Litardo.<\/p>\n

As data analysts, the two students played a pivotal role in gathering information on potential predators and their patterns.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s difficult to pinpoint, \u2018Oh, that person’s a human trafficker\u2019, you know what I mean?\u201d shared Marticorena. \u201cSo, it was one of those things where we had to learn the different behaviors of personalities and just the signs.”<\/p>\n

The two students’ work helped investigators and prosecutors build their cases, ultimately helping the Miami-Dade State Attorney\u2019s Office and their partners with more than 20 human trafficking arrests during the World Cup,<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cTruly, it’s incredible the amount of people it takes to actually execute these operations,\u201d shared Marticorena. \u201cFrom the starting point, to where they suspect someone is conducting human trafficking, to actually putting them behind bars. Being able to see that whole process unfold and being able to take part in that process has truly been rewarding.\u201d<\/p>\n

Litardo said she takes special pride, knowing their efforts helped to make a difference in a big way.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was part of something bigger than myself that I never expected to, like, be at this age. Honestly, at this age, I wouldn’t be thinking like I was going to be combating criminals or like helping targeting people, explained Litardo.<\/p>\n

Marticorena said the experience allowed her to solidify her plans to pursue this career field.<\/p>\n

The students’ time with the State Attorney’s Office was the first time students not pursuing a law degree were given this opportunity. <\/p>\n

The two women graduate December 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Subscribe to our YouTube channel! NBC6 South Florida As Miami welcomed thousands this summer for the World Cup,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":393054,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[77543,2846,225,227,226],"class_list":["post-393053","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-hialeah","tag-2026-world-cup","tag-florida-international-university","tag-hialeah","tag-hialeah-headlines","tag-hialeah-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393053","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=393053"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393053\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/393054"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=393053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=393053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=393053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}