Retired NFL player among 250 nabbed in human-trafficking sting

Adarius Taylor, a retired NFL linebacker who played for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Carolina Panthers and Cleveland Browns, was arrested along with more than 250 others in a human trafficking sting in Florida.

The Polk County Sheriff’s Office led a multiagency effort to arrest the alleged suspects as part of “Operation Fool Around and Find Out,” the Orlando Sentinel reported.

The arrests were made between May 2 and 10. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Osceola County Sheriff’s Office and Lake County Sheriff’s Office helped track down the suspects.

While providing details of the arrests, Polk Sheriff Grady Judd said Taylor brought his six-year-old to the site of the sting operation and left the child in his vehicle while he went inside. The child was later recovered by the Florida Department of Children and Families.

“Obviously, he must have hit one too many people as a linebacker, because his brain cells are scrambled,” Judd said, according to the Sentinel.

Officials arrested the former American football player on charges of child abuse without bodily harm and misdemeanor solicitation of prostitution charges, according to an arrest affidavit obtained by the outlet.

Out of the total 255 people arrested, 141 of them were charged with soliciting prostitutes, 93 were charged with offering to commit prostitution, 10 with offenses related to prostitution – including aiding and abetting or transporting prostitutes – and 11 with traveling to meet a minor for sex or other child sex crimes.

Nearly all of the cited offenses are misdemeanor crimes.

Police identified four people as possible victims of human trafficking and offered them services, including one individual from Ocoee, a city in Orange County, Florida.

At least 221 of the individuals arrested were from outside Polk County, including 10 people from Orlando, two from Kissimmee, two from Casselberry, one from St Cloud and one from Windermere. Other suspects were located across the country in Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia.

At least one person was arrested in Brazil.

Judd, who praised ICE for their efforts, said that 36 of the people arrested were undocumented migrants.

“There’s been a change of administration … and now we are allowed to have ICE with us,” he told reporters. “I can’t say enough good about ICE … they are hand-in-glove with us every day. They have a mission from the president of the United States.”