SALT LAKE CITY (AP) – Utah’s top law enforcement officer said this week that he secretly traveled to South America to play a role in a sex-trafficking sting operation in order to help fight the crime before victims end up in Utah.
In October, Attorney General Sean Reyes traveled to Colombia with a nonprofit organization and pretended to be a bodyguard and Spanish-speaking translator for businessmen seeking children for a sex party.
When local Colombian law enforcement and military officers burst in, the effort freed 54 children from trafficking, Reyes said this week. Reyes, a Republican who was re-elected in November, was working with the Utah-based group Operation Underground Railroad.
The organization works around the world with local governments to organize similar sting operations and fight child sex-trafficking.
Operation Underground Railroad said the raid Reyes participated in was one of three they staged in Colombia last fall, freeing more than 120 children.