{"id":409577,"date":"2026-08-18T07:34:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-18T07:34:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/409577\/"},"modified":"2026-08-18T07:34:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-18T07:34:12","slug":"fort-worth-world-cup-trafficking-operation-leads-to-56-arrests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/409577\/","title":{"rendered":"Fort Worth World Cup trafficking operation leads to 56 arrests"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Law enforcement officers in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dallasnews.com\/topic\/fort-worth\/?utm_source=paid_marketing&amp;utm_medium=google_dsa&amp;utm_campaign=content_acquisition&amp;gad_source=1&amp;gad_campaignid=23423742462&amp;gclid=Cj0KCQjw4orUBhCjARIsAIbF3qyBx6zV3iZhb-nLdvKhiXkMi5-9JOdiwZia75SUQU4lPcZzBEe2kNgaAtOEEALw_wcB\" data-link=\"native\" class=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Fort Worth<\/a> arrested more than 50 individuals for solicitation and drug possession during the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dallasnews.com\/world-cup\/\" data-link=\"native\" class=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">FIFA World Cup Tournament,<\/a> officials announced at a Monday news conference.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The Fort Worth Police Department and Tarrant County Sheriff&#8217;s Department partnered with the U.S. Secret Service over nine days in June and July to coordinate Operation Red Card, a targeted campaign set up to address human trafficking.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis operation demonstrated what happens when those agencies share information, resources and common commitment to public safety,\u201d Fort Worth police Chief Eddie Garcia said.<\/p>\n<p>The operation had three parts \u2014 two in Arlington and one in Fort Worth \u2014 that resulted in a combined 56 arrests. Suspects are now awaiting their day in court after being arrested for attempting to purchase commercial sex, attempting to meet a minor for the purposes of sexual activity and narcotics.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Local officials worked alongside the United States Secret Service \u2014 as well as local nonprofits Unbound Now and Rescue Hill \u2014 \u00a0to recover and support 45 victims of human trafficking.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese aren&#8217;t just case numbers,\u201d Ryan Raybould, U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Texas, said. \u201cThey represent predators taken off the streets and vulnerable individuals protected from harm.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Operation Red Card was one of the many North Texas law enforcement campaigns that wereconducted to prevent human trafficking during and before the World Cup. Earlier this month, the Dallas Police Department announced officers made over 1,000 arrests during the tournament in operations targeting prostitution and related criminal activity.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Unlike the Dallas operations, which largely targeted the buyers, the Fort Worth operation was designed to locate and recover victims.<\/p>\n<p>Amanda Pettit, CEO of Rescue Now, said that despite the different goals, both Dallas and Fort Worth officials supported \u201ctrauma informed\u201d efforts to support victims.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAll law enforcement in our area has done a phenomenal job of making sure that all operations trauma informed, victim centered, focused really on recovery of the women,\u201d Pettit said.<\/p>\n<p>This Operation Red Card is different from a March operation with the same name, where law enforcement seized over 800 kilograms of meth, 280 guns, and arrested 200 people ahead of the World Cup.<\/p>\n<p>Now, officials are looking to prosecute offenders at the state and federal level. Raybould said that two cases were referred for federal prosecutions, with several others expected in the coming months. Phil Sorrels, the Tarrant County district attorney, said he expects to handle a majority of the cases.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Law enforcement officers in Fort Worth arrested more than 50 individuals for solicitation and drug possession during the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":409578,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[116,118,117],"class_list":["post-409577","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-worth","tag-fort-worth","tag-fort-worth-headlines","tag-fort-worth-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409577","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=409577"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409577\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/409578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=409577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=409577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=409577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}