By admin 
SCOTTSDALE, AZ (AZFamily) — Arizona and international law enforcement officials highlighted efforts to combat child sex trafficking and exploitation, citing recent cases and an ongoing partnership with Colombian authorities.
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HSI outlines scope of child exploitation cases
Jason Stevens, Homeland Security Investigations special agent, described how child exploitation “takes many forms,” including predators targeting children online, production and distribution of child sexual abuse material, offenders traveling internationally to exploit children, and traffickers who recruit and commercially exploit children.
“While the circumstances and those four things are completely different, the victim is not,” he said. “A child is a child. Children do not choose exploitation, and a child cannot consent to it.”
Stevens said HSI has more than 8,500 special agents in over 220 domestic offices and more than 94 international offices in 56 countries.
He said the agency’s mission is “built to follow criminal organizations, their money, their technology, and the people that they exploit,” and that HSI continues investigations when they cross international borders.
Arizona cases cited
Officials highlighted several HSI Arizona investigations, including a 2025 case where a sex trafficker was sentenced to 11 years in prison after trafficking a 16-year-old girl from Phoenix.
A separate HSI Arizona investigation in 2025 uncovered a trafficker who sexually exploited multiple children out of Tucson. That defendant was sentenced to more than 40 years in prison and lifetime supervised release. Two of the victims were under the age of 12.
Stevens says HSI Arizona has worked for several years with partners in Colombia, particularly in Medellín, on child exploitation and sex trafficking investigations. He said the cooperation has helped identify victims and offenders and pursue cases across other international borders.
Stevens said HSI operates Transnational Criminal Investigative Units, made up of vetted foreign units, in partner countries including Colombia, Thailand, and the Philippines.
FBI cites 2025 trafficking statistics
Rebecca Day, special agent with FBI Phoenix and co-director of the Homeland Security Task Force, said the FBI initiated 915 human trafficking cases in 2025 and conducted 181 arrests connected to those investigations.
Day said human trafficking organizations “operate in plain sight and may go undetected for months, years, or decades.”
She described how the FBI’s approach is victim-centered and that the agency works with local, state, federal and international partners, as well as nonprofits and victim advocacy groups.
U.S. attorney cites extraterritorial jurisdiction
U.S. Attorney for the District of Arizona Tim Courchaine said prosecutors are directly involved in Homeland Security Task Force (HSTF) investigations rather than waiting for cases to be referred.
Courchaine said U.S. law includes extraterritorial jurisdiction for certain crimes, meaning a U.S. citizen who commits child sexual exploitation overseas can be prosecuted in the United States regardless of where the crime occurred.
Medellín mayor cites cooperation, cases
Federico Gutiérrez, mayor of Medellín, Colombia, said that sexual exploitation of children “is the worst of crimes.”
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The mayor says Medellín “is part of the solution” and that the city will continue working with HSI, the FBI and Colombia’s prosecuting office.
Colombia and the United States have secured two life sentences in the past year and a half against people who abused children.
The partnership led to 35 arrests in that period involving both American and Colombian citizens tied to a child exploitation network, with 43 additional prioritized cases involving American citizens accused of abusing children in Medellín and other cities.
Gutiérrez described a case involving Scottsdale resident James Bond, a former MMA fighter, who was arrested for having sex with eight minors in Colombia. Gutiérrez said Bond abused children in Medellín and other cities.
Bond will serve part of his sentence in the United States before Colombia seeks his extradition to serve part of his sentence there.
The mayor said two Colombian women accused of online abuse of their children, ages 8 months and 10 months, are being sought for extradition to the United States.
Officials say HSI has maintained an office in Colombia for years, and the partnership continues to grow.
Reporting resources
Stevens urged people who believe a child is being exploited to report it rather than confront an offender or investigate independently.
“What we would ask is that you preserve the evidence, give us the information, and let us do our job,” he said.
Two resources, the Center for Countering Human Trafficking and the Know2Protect campaign, provide age-specific guidance for parents on discussing online safety with children through a QR code.
Anyone with information about a suspected trafficking crime can call 1-800-CALL-FBI or submit an anonymous tip at tips.fbi.gov .
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