CHARLESTON, W.Va. — U.S. Attorney for West Virginia’s Southern District Will Thompson says there’s an ongoing trend between human trafficking and substance use disorder in West Virginia.
Thompson addressed the issue during a joint training event Thursday in Charleston and Wheeling with Bill Ihlenfeld, the U.S. Attorney for West Virginia’s Northern District.
During his presentation at the Basilica of the Co-Cathedral of the Sacred Heart in Charleston, Thompson said about 80 percent of those trafficked under the age of 10 are trafficked by a family member. Many of the victims are in the foster care system and are trafficked so that their parent or family member can profit from drugs, essentially fueling their addiction.
“That money is not being used to build an addition on your house or buy rent. It’s being used to buy drugs. It’s used to fuel the addiction the parent has,” Thompson said.
The combination of high drug use and the foster care crisis in West Virginia has resulted in more human trafficking of children. Thompson said 74 percent of likely sex trafficking victims were in the care of social services or foster care when they went missing.
Older children and young adults are often forced into “survival trafficking” due to their parents and care takers substance use disorder making them unable to properly provide and support them. Thompson said there’s been an increasing number of people coerced into sex or labor trafficking by traffickers exploiting their substance use disorder or introducing drugs to control them.
“Imagine if you were a child or young adult 18-20 years old, your family unit is done often because of addition, and you have to find a place to live. A lot of times their only means of support is getting caught up with human trafficking and sex trafficking,” Thompson said.
THIS MORNING: @USAttyThompson and @USAttyIhlenfeld jointly lead #HumanTrafficking training with @FBIPittsburgh and other partners.
Thanks to @DWC1850 for the Wheeling and Charleston host sites.#EndHumanTrafticking pic.twitter.com/mwKmUJjkLq
— U.S. Attorney SDWV (@SDWVnews) January 18, 2024
The harsh reality, Thompson said, is that human trafficking and drugs are going hand in hand.
“One of the things that really bothered me as a judge and even bothers me more now is people taking advantage of people who have an addition and that’s what human traffickers do,” he said.
Thursday’s event also featured work by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Pittsburgh Division, the West Virginia Fusion Center, the West Virginia Foundation for Rape Information and Services (FRIS), the West Virginia Child Advocacy Network and Angie Conn, a human trafficking survivor, victim advocate and founder of SheWhoDares Consulting LLC.