Human trafficking, sex and forced labor is a growing problem in N.J. An elite police unit is working 24/7 to save victims

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Forced labor and sex-trafficking are on the rise in New Jersey, and the state now has an independent unit within the state police department handling such cases.

“You could say it’s an epidemic in New Jersey, it is growing quite rapidly,” said Detective Sgt. Rick Hershey, who supervises the New Jersey State Police Human Trafficking unit in South Jersey.

According to the National Human Trafficking Hotline, 170 human trafficking cases were identified in New Jersey by investigators in 2023 from calls to the hotline, up from 137 cases in 2022 and the largest total since 2019, when 247 such cases were identified.

Cassidy Egan, is the only female detective in the 13-person Human Trafficking Unit.

She said many of the victims are runaway teenagers or foreign nationals, who don’t speak English and become vulnerable to predators. They get lured into “jobs” as nannies or housekeepers but are then forced into prostitution with threats against their families back home.

Detective Sgt. Mark Wettengel, who runs the day-to-day operations of the Human Trafficking Unit in North Jersey, said sex-trafficked victims are manipulated and brainwashed and often have a hard time escaping their captors.

Robin Miller, who grew up in Vancouver, Washington, agrees.

Miller had a troubled childhood. Her parents were alcoholics and she was subjected to violence at home. In high school, she became a victim of sexual assault and took to drugs and alcohol.

After getting a job in a strip club she started a relationship with a man, who turned out to be a pimp and trafficked her.

“Mind you, I was stumbling drunk, I wasn’t thinking with all of my sensibilities or abilities. My self-esteem, my self-worth was so low, and I was looking for somebody to love me,” she said.

Those years, she spent shuttling in between motels and the streets, smoking crack, traveling up and down the West Coast and in Phoenix, Las Vegas and Hawaii.

She said she felt trapped but was too scared to call her family for help, so she stayed.

“Why didn’t I leave, I don’t know, it’s domestic violence, we say on steroids, right, this is just another layer,” she said. “The fear and the shame and the stigma is so great, and you’re being told you’re going to get in trouble, you’re going to go to jail, nobody is going to believe you.”

Finally, after six years, she was able to escape. Wettengel said women who become entangled with traffickers are emotionally beaten down, fed narcotics and they view it as their life.

“That’s why we try to give them resources they need to overcome that,” he said.

On average, Wettengel’s unit rescues three to five trafficked victims a month, but the number varies. He said earlier this spring the unit was investigating 11 different cases. Sometimes there are multiple leads and tips in one week.

Amanda Leese, the senior vice president of re-entry and navigator programs for the Volunteers of America (VOA) Delaware Valley chapter, which includes South Jersey, said her organization began outreach efforts nine years ago, working with law enforcement in human trafficking hot spots, such as Atlantic City.

“It does provide us with an opportunity to build a rapport with victims, that way, when they are ready for services, they know how to get in touch with us,” she said.

Leese said when authorities make a human trafficking bust, they frequently refer victims to VOA for help.

“Normally, the immediate need is access to medical treatment,” she said. “Sometimes detox and also they need shelter placement right away, we have shelters all over the state and we are able to place them immediately.”

She said that while some individuals will refer to themselves as victims of human trafficking, many others prefer survivors.

“What the men and women that have been trafficked have been through is something that none of us will be able to understand, and so survivor is a more empowering term,” she said.

Wettengel said his unit’s job doesn’t end with a bust.

“We are always following up with them, making sure they’re okay, they’re good, especially if they’re going to be testifying in court, it’s a lot for them to deal with,” he said.

Even undocumented immigrants caught in the trafficking web are entitled to services, he said.

New Jersey State Police Major Tom Wieczerak is the commanding officer of the Special Investigations Section, which includes the Human Trafficking Unit.

He said his team goes beyond rescuing human trafficked survivors by going after the traffickers.

“With the location of New Jersey, with all the arteries, the Turnpike and all these interstates, it’s definitely something that is on the rise,” he said.

When to intervene

How do you look for signs of trafficking?

Wieczerak said common sense is key, and if something seems odd, it’s worth reporting.

“If you see young girls in hotels that may be dressed provocatively with older men, that can be a red flag,” he said.

Leese said sometimes it’s just a matter of “trusting one’s gut”.

“If you see women that are afraid to speak for themselves, it doesn’t hurt to look into it a little further, or call the authorities to do the same thing,” she said.

If human trafficking is suspected, New Jersey has a 24-hour human trafficking hotline number that can be called anonymously, 1-855-END-NJHT, which is 1-855-363-6548.

How to prevent trafficking?

Leese said education and awareness, especially for young men and women, is critically important to prevent human trafficking going forward, and her agency is working with local police departments to bring presentations into schools for kids as young as elementary school level.

“It’s making sure we’re having conversations with our children about what could happen, everything is on social media, a lot of things are considered acceptable, and kids may not know the danger they’re getting into,” she said. “It’s also making parents aware of danger signs they need to be aware of.”

Hershey said that with the World Cup coming to New Jersey in 2026, the problem is expected to increase exponentially, and his unit will be working closely with the FBI and authorities in Philadelphia to stop it.

Miller now works as an advocate, supporting victims of child and adults in recovery, who have been sex and labor trafficked.

Her advice to young women who start going down a slippery slope is simple: tell someone.

“Find your trusted adult, we know if there’s one adult who is healthy in a child’s life, chances of success (and help) are greater, talk to somebody, don’t keep it inside.”