Lisa slides a Hellcat pistol into her backpack, slinging it over her shoulder. She jumps out of the driver\u2019s seat of her massive Ford F-250 as we head into a barbecue joint for lunch. Steel brass knuckles glint in the console beside a pencil-shaped, pronged object. She sees me looking at it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThat\u2019s my stabby-stick,\u201d Lisa says before I even ask. \u201cIn case I can\u2019t bring my gun somewhere. These guys are dangerous.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThese guys\u201d are sex traffickers, and dangerous doesn\u2019t begin to describe them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Many traffickers are members of Mexican or Salvadorian gangs, part of Cuban rings or the vicious Venezuelan group Tren de Aragua. Their modus operandi is luring migrant women and girls across the southern border, promising them good jobs once they get to America, and then forcing them into prostitution once they\u2019re here, ostensibly to pay off the debt they incurred to get into the U.S. Hunting down sex traffickers is not for the faint of heart, and Lisa is not about to take any chances. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
An athletic, no-nonsense blonde in her 50s, Lisa runs a small nonprofit foundation called Shepherd\u2019s Watch<\/a>, dedicated to bringing down sex-trafficking rings. Prior to starting Shepherd\u2019s Watch in 2016, Lisa had been a telecom engineer and an expert at analyzing cell phone data used in court cases. In that job, she says, she saw a \u201cdisturbing\u201d amount of child exploitation. \u201cI couldn\u2019t ignore it anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Read it all<\/a>.<\/p> NEW Migrant crime story: I shadowed a private investigator in Dallas and saw firsthand how easy it is to \u201corder\u201d a migrant girl off one of dozens of sex solicitation websites. @ShepherdsWatchF<\/a> is doing great work trying to stop this kind of crime. https:\/\/t.co\/RJ29TzMKtv<\/a><\/p>— Maddie Rowley (@Maddie_Rowley_) October 14, 2024<\/a><\/blockquote>