Expand / Collapse search
☰

Diddy sex trafficking trial, recent operations shine light on how close exploitation hits to home

By
Published  June 26, 2025 10:44pm EDT
Tampa
FOX 13 News
Diddy trial brings more sex trafficking awareness

Diddy trial brings more sex trafficking awareness

An anti-trafficking advocate said the Diddy sex trafficking trial is changes perceptions and has brought awareness to the nuisances around sex trafficking and how it can happen. FOX 13's Genevieve Curtis reports.

The Brief

    • The Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs sex trafficking trial and recent law enforcement operations are dispelling myths that sex trafficking victims are always foreign-born or kidnapped.
    • Sixty missing children from the Bay Area were located by U.S. Marshals during Operation Dragon Eye.
    • An anti-human trafficking advocate says while it’s great that sex trafficking victims are being rescued, more needs to be done to go after the people who are paying for the exploitation.

TAMPA, Fla. - The high-profile trial of Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs is doing more than dominating headlines — it’s shifting public perception of what sex trafficking really looks like, and just how close to home it can be.

Big picture view:

Rachel Foster, co-founder of World Without Exploitation, sat in on some of the recent Diddy trial proceedings. While the outcome is important, she says the real impact lies in the awareness and visibility these cases bring.

"These trials give people a voice," Foster said. "It allows somebody to see themselves in it — to say, that’s what it looks like, I think that might be happening to me — and potentially have the courage to seek help."

Foster and other anti-trafficking advocates say the attention from this case — and others like it — is helping to dispel dangerous myths, particularly the belief that sex trafficking victims are always foreign-born or kidnapped.

"There’s a misconception that victims are brought here from overseas," she said. "When in fact, it’s all too often native kids from our own neighborhoods who are being bought and sold in the sex trade."

Local perspective:

That reality was underscored this week when FOX 13 took you inside a U.S. Marshals-led operation that located 60 missing children across the Tampa Bay region — most of whom were being trafficked. All of the children were from Florida.

Many of the recovered children had been in and out of the foster care system, or were dealing with instability at home — making them especially vulnerable to exploitation.

"Where there’s need and where there’s vulnerability, there’s exploitation," Foster said.

RELATED: Inside the nation's largest child recovery operation: What happens after 60 missing kids found?

Others were lured online, through social media and messaging apps — by predators who often start by giving them what seems like innocent attention.

"We have to be mindful of how it happens — in our own backyards, to kids we know, to young women we know," Foster said.

The U.S. Marshals operation led to the arrest of eight people. While advocates are relieved to see children recovered, they say law enforcement and society must place equal — if not greater — emphasis on targeting the demand.

"There’s often a lot of focus on victims," Foster said. "But we need to do a better job going after those who are paying for the exploitation."

The Source: This story was written with information gathered by FOX 13's Genevieve Curtis. 

STAY CONNECTED WITH FOX 13 TAMPA:

TampaCrime and Public Safety