Florida law enforcement recently arrested 148 individuals and rescued seven victims following a large-scale human trafficking sting dubbed “Operation Summer Shield.”
According to Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister, the goal of the operation was to prevent children from becoming victims of human trafficking during the summer, when they’re out of school and spending more time on the internet.
“From April 29, the 102 days during summer until Friday before school started, we really ramped up our efforts to combat human trafficking to assure that no child fell victim to human trafficking operations,” Chronister said.
During the first day of the operation, the sheriff’s office said that several records were broken.
“That day, they broke a record for the number of individuals wanting to purchase sex on a single day,” Chronister said. “That was until the second day when they smashed that record almost an hour before the operation started.”
The sheriff added that the demand to purchase sex was so great that the squad had to purchase an additional room to keep up with the number of people wanting to purchase sex. Ten individuals were arrested in the first two hours of the operation.
Chronister emphasized four of the arrests during a recent press conference, which he said were the “more egregious offenders.”
One suspect, 33-year-old John Randall Craddock, was arrested after he allegedly sent explicit messages to someone he believed was a 15-year-old girl. However, Chronister said the suspect was really communicating with an undercover detective. Devante Kershaw, 28, was also arrested during the operation when he, too, allegedly communicated with an undercover detective.
“After attempting to groom our undercover detective for nearly a month, it was time to meet,” Chronister said. “Kershaw was so confident that he met with our undercover detective for more than an hour, and our human trafficking squad closed the deal with a solid arrest and a RICO charge, among others.”
Chronister said it is worrying to see how “productive and fruitful” the operation was. The sheriff established the Human Trafficking Squad in 2021 and has made nearly 800 arrests since then.
“Our mission is clear: to protect our community and hold traffickers accountable,”
Chronister said. “We will not rest until every victim is safe and every trafficker is behind bars. Let me be clear: Traffickers, your days of exploiting innocent people are over in Hillsborough County.”
