Hundreds of Johns in Cook County Charged in National Sex Trafficking Sting

More than 1,300 alleged sex buyers were charged in this year’s Johns Suppression Initiative, a national effort by law enforcement to curb sex trafficking.

And no place saw more arrests as part of the month-long summer sting involving dozens of agencies than Cook County.

The Cook County Sheriff’s Office arrested 230 johns from July 1 to August 7, including 43 in cooperation with suburban police departments in Lansing, Matteson and Broadview.

Also on Patch: 14 Men Arrested at Arlington Heights Motel for Soliciting Prostitutes

“This summer’s initiative focused on ensuring that victims of sex trafficking were connected with appropriate social services,” Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart wrote in a news release.

The law enforcement department with the next highest number of “john” arrests during that time was the Seattle Police Department with 204. The Columbus Police Department was the only other one to make more than 100.

In all, more than 70 law enforcement agencies across 18 states participated in the sting, which netted 1,358 solicitation arrests, 71 human trafficking arrests and the recovery of at least 32 underage girls who were lured into prostitution, according to the Sheriff’s Office.

Included in Cook County’s arrests was that of a 15-year-old attempting to buy sex.

Sixty percent of all arrests nationally came from online advertisements, of which 99 percent were made on Backpage.com.