The Intersection of Human Trafficking and Crime Networks:
How Technology Fights Back

The Human Trafficking Crisis

Human trafficking is modern-day slavery, involving the use of force, fraud, or coercion to obtain labor or commercial sex acts. According to the Department of Justice, approximately 14,500-17,500 people are trafficked into the United States annually. The FBI reports that sex trafficking of children is the fastest-growing form of organized crime in America, with over 100,000 children estimated to be exploited in the US each year. The Department of Homeland Security notes that human trafficking generates an estimated $150 billion worldwide annually, with traffickers increasingly using online platforms to recruit and exploit victims.

Human Trafficking’s Connection to Other Crimes

Human trafficking rarely exists in isolation. Trafficking operations frequently intersect with other criminal enterprises, including drug smuggling, money laundering, and violent crime. Transnational criminal organizations use human trafficking as one of many revenue streams in their criminal portfolio. These organizations exploit jurisdictional boundaries, moving victims across state and international lines to evade law enforcement, creating complex criminal networks that are difficult to dismantle using traditional methods.

Individual traffickers also force victims into various criminal activities. According to the National Institute of Justice, traffickers commonly compel victims to commit retail theft, deal drugs, and commit check/credit card fraud. Traffickers may require victims to recruit other victims, creating a cycle of exploitation where today’s victims become instruments for tomorrow’s crimes. These criminal activities serve both as revenue sources and as means to further control victims through criminal records that discourage them from seeking help. Whether part of sophisticated criminal enterprises or smaller operations, human trafficking creates complex criminal ecosystems that prove challenging to confront.

The Technology Solution: DeliverFund’s Approach

DeliverFund is uniquely positioned to combat human trafficking with its team of experts from the CIA, law enforcement, and the tech industry. Unlike approaches that focus solely on victim rescue (which can inadvertently encourage traffickers to recruit new victims), DeliverFund targets the root cause – the traffickers themselves. They’ve built the largest analyst-curated human trafficking database in existence, turning traffickers’ technological tools against them. DeliverFund coordinates cases nationally and internationally, overcoming the jurisdictional challenges that traffickers exploit.

Introducing NightWatch: A Partnership for Progress

DeliverFund’s partnership with Whooster, a leader in investigative data solutions and provider of a cutting-edge data analysis intelligence SaaS platform, provides users with access to DeliverFund’s extensive database. This comes at no cost to law enforcement agencies across the country through ‘Whooster NightWatch.’

This groundbreaking technology automatically connects phone numbers, emails, and other data points to DeliverFund’s datasets, and then combines that data with Whooster’s technology to assign scores that denote the possibility of human trafficking.

Success Stories: NightWatch in Action

Law enforcement agencies and other Whooster users across the country are discovering NightWatch’s power to uncover trafficking networks and their connections to other crimes:

Officials in the south identified 4-5 potential suspects in Fentanyl overdose death cases who were also involved in possible trafficking through NightWatch. The detective in charge reported that Nightwatch “has been helpful to bridge data gaps between narcotics and human trafficking since the people involved in dealing drugs are often associated with human trafficking.”

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A large Federal agency on the east coast made a surprising discovery when investigating an illegal auto theft ring operating between China, the US, and Canada.

By running a suspect’s phone number through NightWatch, he uncovered a hit on the west coast that led to an investigation into the trafficking of underage Asian males and females using commercial sex advertisements. What began as an auto theft case revealed an extensive human trafficking operation.

An intelligence analyst in the south used Whooster’s NightWatch feature to save three women from a sex trafficking ring. The analyst ran several selectors, and NightWatch was able to produce additional illicit ads featuring the victims that Spotlight did not have. NightWatch was able to fill in the gaps and lead to the rescue of three women from a sex trafficking operation. There are currently ongoing efforts to arrest the traffickers themselves.

 In February 2025, an investigator in the midwest received a NightWatch hit while investigating a shooter linked to an international criminal organization. The technology revealed connections to prostitution advertisements, expanding their investigation to uncover a broader human trafficking operation connected to terrorist activities.

We stand with DeliverFund, united in our mission to dismantle trafficking networks and protect the innocent, using every technological advantage at our disposal.

Richard Spradley
Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Whooster

Join the Fight

Human traffickers use technology to exploit victims – DeliverFund and Whooster use technology to bring them to justice. By supporting DeliverFund, you contribute to developing advanced software that tracks traffickers, trains law enforcement partners, and helps victims escape exploitation. Together, we can leverage technology to disrupt human trafficking markets and create safer communities.

Nightwatch is completely free for all law enforcement and government agencies seeking access. This is a dedicated partnership between DeliverFund and Whooster to ensure that this valuable information can be leveraged nationwide to combat the human trafficking epidemic.  If you are also interested in testing the Whooster platform for 60 days free of charge, please complete the the form below.

Learn more and support this critical mission at deliverfund.org.

Sign up for Access to NightWatch and Whooster

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