Peach Tree Times

A 10-month investigation by Georgia's recently formed Human Trafficking Prosecution Unit into human sex trafficking led to the arrest of four people in Fulton County last month, according to published reports.

Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr announced the arrests of alleged traffickers Jody Netter, Courdale Thayer, Jahaundria Seabron and Raphel Olivia Sewer.on Dec. 13, according to Fox 5 Atlanta. The report states this case is one of the first the HTPU, formed in 2019, has handled from beginning to end.

The investigation that led to the arrests began in January, when the HTPU received an alert from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, according to a Dec. 13 report by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The alert led investigators to locate and rescue in late February a 14-year-old who had been missing for seven weeks.

All four defendants in the case have been charged with "human trafficking for sexual servitude," Carr said to the AJC in December. Two - Netter and Thayer - are also facing additional charges related to the investigation. 

If convicted, Seabron and Sewer could face life sentences. Netter and Thayer could face life plus 40 years, according to Fox 5 Atlanta, 

"Our Human Trafficking Prosecution Unit continues to play an integral role in our state's response to the abuse and exploitation of Georgia's children," state AG Carr said when announcing the arrests. "Our team works from the ground up to identify potential cases, locate and rescue victims, and prosecute buyers and traffickers."

The Center for Public Policy Studies released its Georgia Human Trafficking Fact Sheet in 2013 that outlines the impact of sex trafficking in the state. According to the study, 5,000 girls risk being sex-trafficked, and 374 girls are sexually trafficked every month. The average age girls enter the Georgia commercial sex market is 12 to 14 years old. More than 7,000 Georgia men pay for sex with an adolescent girl every month. One hundred adolescent girls are sexually exploited every night in the state of Georgia, the fact sheet states. And finally, Atlanta has the highest rate of Hispanic females that are trafficked out of any location in the U.S., according to the study.

AG Carr expressed pride in the achievements of the HTPU thus far.

"I'm very proud in 2021 we have now initiated 25 cases," Carr said in the arrest announcement. "We've arrested nine individuals. We have investigated and prosecuted 51 defendants and we have rescued and assisted 107 victims just in this calendar year.  Which tells me two things, even in a global health pandemic, criminals aren't taking time off and neither are we."