The Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Human Trafficking Task Force reported 29 human trafficking arrests and the rescue of 73 victims, including 10 minors, in a special enforcement effort leading up to the Feb. 8 Super Bowl at Santa Clara’s Levi’s Stadium
District Attorney Jeff Rosen said one of the victims, who was being trafficked in Oakland, was 12 years old.
Regional Anti-Trafficking Task Force
Law enforcement operations were held throughout 11 Bay Area counties during the lead up to the Super Bowl, Rosen reported. He said a similar enforcement effort is being prepared for the 2026 FIFA World Cup soccer tournament games at Levi’s Stadium between June 13 and July 1.
“Beyond football, the Super Bowl was a triumph of Bay Area law enforcement planning, organization, cooperation, and safety,” Rosen said in a statement. “Human trafficking is not a game, it’s a tragedy. However, our team was very successful. Close to 70 agencies effectively discouraged traffickers from exploiting the game and victims. For traffickers that still came to the game from all over the world with bad intentions, many ended up behind bars.”
The task force helped organize the efforts of 67 law enforcement agencies from Sacramento to Monterey.
For two weeks before the Big Game, Rosen said the Task Force set up a command center in Sunnyvale comprising more than 20 analysts from various agencies, such as the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office, the DA’s Crime Strategies Unit, federal agencies, and partners from community-based organizations such as In Our Backyard, and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
The analysts worked on tips in real time and worked alongside agents in the field to do investigations and make arrests. “Operations that often take weeks took minutes in the enhanced Human Trafficking Tactical Operations Center,” Rosen said.
The task force launched almost 40 operations, and investigators recovered 20 victims from San Mateo County alone, 17 in Contra Costa County. Seven traffickers were arrested in Contra Costa; six in Monterey and Solano counties, according to the district attorney. In Santa Clara County, seven victims were recovered, two traffickers arrested, and a firearm was seized.
