Will there be a sex-trafficking spike during the World Cup? Law enforcement is preparing for one

From Houston Public Media:

Two days before the New England Patriots faced the Atlanta Falcons at Houston’s NRG Stadium in 2017, residents across Houston who turned on Channel 11’s nightly news became spectators to the “dark side” of the Super Bowl: sex trafficking.

By the end of the massive sporting event, law enforcement officials had reported just under 100 human trafficking-related arrests across the area.

Grant Snyder, a former sergeant with the Minneapolis Police Department, traveled to Houston to lead “Operation Guardian Angel.” In 2017, his team identified victims and arrested perpetrators during the round-the-clock initiative.

“We were doing ops until the wee hours of the morning,” he told Houston Public Media. “We were going out and making contact, finding out where people were — just knocking on the door, telling them who we were, telling them why we were there and asking if they needed help.”

Nearly a decade later, with the 2026 FIFA World Cup fast approaching, conversations about human trafficking are again echoing through advocacy organizations, city meetings and law enforcement briefings — especially in Houston, a city with some of the highest sex trafficking rates in the country, according to the Houston Area Women’s Center.

But there is a barrage of conflicting information on whether sex trafficking actually increases during large sporting events. Law enforcement and advocacy organizations seem to differ.

“And I’ll be honest with you, I haven’t really seen strong data either way,” Snyder said.

Do large crowds increase demand for sex work?

While over 70,000 people attended the 2026 Super Bowl this year, the 2022 FIFA World Cup had over 3.4 million spectators at its final. The Houston World Cup host committee estimates about half a million people will be in attendance over the course of three weeks in June and July, when the city is set to host seven matches at NRG Stadium.

Yasmin Vafa, director and co-founder of Rights4Girls, says this is a cause for concern.

“Anytime we’re talking, you know, tens of thousands of people all converge to one location for one big event, the traffickers will seek to capitalize off the potential for increased demand for commercial sex,” Vafa said. “When demand spikes, traffickers absolutely follow.”

Online ads are a common strategy human traffickers use to solicit buyers. In 2020, over 80% of sex trafficking-related prosecutions involved advertisement. Increases in those ads have largely been observed during past Super Bowls.

Cherise Charleswell, senior director of Protect All Children From Trafficking (PACT) in Houston, said that increases in sex-selling ads indicate heightened trafficking overall as the sex trade itself operates as a market.

“The sex trade and prostitution is supply and demand driven,” Vafa explained. “Just like any other market.”

Added Snyder: “It’s the online environment – it’s the preferred environment for people to exploit victims. An increase in ads means an increase in trafficking.”

But Jose Alforo, a survivor of human trafficking and a peer support specialist in Boston, said that increased ads do not necessarily mean an increase in trafficking around large sporting events. He said sex trafficking is simply “more obvious and easier to identify through these major events.”

Research casts doubt on sports-related sex trafficking spike

Many experts have largely debunked sex trafficking increases at sporting events as a myth. A 2019 study in the Anti-Trafficking Review by researchers at the University of Texas at Austin and University of Minnesota found there is little to no empirical evidence suggesting a link between the two.

“There’s rhetoric in Houston (about sex trafficking) from 10 years ago that’s sensationalized, and proven to be largely inaccurate,” said Minal Davis, the chief human rights officer with the Houston host committee.

She said sex trafficking is a persistent problem year-round, and that there are no “good numbers” about it increasing significantly during large sporting events.

Several advocates from around the nation seem to agree.

“We have seen very clearly that the research does not show an increase in sex trafficking,” said Leigh LaChapelle, director of policy and advocacy at Coalition to Abolish Slavery and Trafficking (CAST) in Los Angeles.

Vafa disagrees. She pointed to the successful results of sting operations during previous sporting events as proof.

During the Final Four weekend of the NCAA basketball tournament in Minneapolis in 2019, law enforcement arrested 58 men for solicitation of children, prostitution and sex trafficking and recovered 28 trafficking victims. During the 2023 Super Bowl in Phoenix, police made roughly 50 felony arrests tied to trafficking. In 2025 during the NCAA basketball tournament, eight sex trafficking victims were recovered in San Antonio.

Vafa said those arrests are direct evidence of sex trafficking increasing around large sporting events.

“It’s not like it’s a complete hyperbole,” she said. “I know there’s a lot of people that try to be like, ‘This is so made up. This doesn’t happen.’ But it’s not true, because [then] you wouldn’t have all of these arrests, right?”

Law enforcement preparations are underway

Law enforcement in Houston is preparing false-ad sting operations. Despite the lack of clarity on the data from experts and advocates, officers maintain that on the ground, they have seen trafficking increase during major events.

James Cabrera is a lieutenant at the Harris County Sheriff’s Office, which serves unincorporated areas outside the Houston city limits.

“If it wasn’t a problem, why are we planning [for] it?” Cabrera said. “We, as departments — whether you’re talking federal departments, city departments — we would not be planning these operations if [increases] didn’t happen.”

The Houston host committee plans to utilize preexisting resources that are in place year-round.

“When it comes to trafficking … there’s a well-known tip hotline,” Davis said. “And they have protocols that bring it right down to local markets, law enforcement and victim service provider agencies.”

The national tip hotline for reporting human trafficking is 888-3737-888. It will be available during the World Cup.

After victims or sex workers have been identified, they are typically offered outside services through law enforcement.

“We give them wraparound services to ensure that they get the help that they need,” Harris County Precinct 1 Constable Alan Rosen said. “We have different agencies we work with that help them with immigration matters, healthcare, counseling, drug treatment, all of the above.”

Snyder — the retired police sergeant who led Operation Guardian Angel in 2017 — acknowledged the data isn’t clear-cut. But, he said, law enforcement should still prepare.

“It’s not, like, twice or three times the amount,” Snyder said. “But there is a change. And so we have to have a response.”

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