BELTON -
The Bell County Sheriff's office is creating a human trafficking department to be apart of their new special crime unit.
The State of Texas has been pushing for human trafficking and sex trade coverage around the state since there have been several human trafficking busts within the last year.
Bell County Sheriff Eddy Lange spoke to News Channel 25's Markeya Thomas about the recent push for human trafficking.
"It's coming through here. I don't know how much of a sex slave problem we have here, but we certainly do our job to investigate it," explains Sheriff Lange. "And if we do, we want to address the issue."
Bell County has been cooperating with the Austin Police Department to track down human trafficking since I-35 is a major interstate for drug transportation and illegal immigrants.
They are seeing a growing trend between sex offenders and sex trade, and Bell County has a large number of registered sex offenders.
"Registered sex offenders and human trafficking – those crimes intertwine. And Chuck Cox realized this is an ongoing problem and he is being proactive and get this going locally," said Lt. Donnie Adams.
Bell County will not be hiring new deputies but training the deputies and moving them into this new unit.
