Operation Red Light didn’t just skim the surface; it peeled back the layers of sex trafficking in Southwest Florida, uncovering an ugly reality running through homes and strip malls in Lee County. The investigation, which stretched over two years, brought together law enforcement and survivors trying to break the cycle and bring traffickers to justice.
Operation Red Light
Operation Red Light was a sweeping crackdown on human trafficking and prostitution in Lee County, Florida. The Southwest Florida INTERCEPT Task Force, working with local police, the State Attorney’s Office (20th Judicial Circuit), and the Lee County Sheriff’s Office, carried out the sting.
In April 2026, officers hit eight locations in one morning: four homes and four businesses spread across Fort Myers and Cape Coral. They didn’t arrive by chance; some brothels tried to hide in plain sight. They set up shop inside ordinary-looking storefronts, with no flashy signs or clues, just part of the scenery, just steps from a children’s daycare.
Ten people landed in jail after the operation, now facing charges like RICO conspiracy, money laundering, and making money from prostitution.
The Shelter for Abused Women and Children in Naples helps survivors, but the sheer scale of the problem is overwhelming. They have discovered a staggering number of girls that were put up for sale on the website right here in Southwest Florida, with pages of girls put on this website for sale daily.
Law enforcement tries to keep up. Lt. Wade Williams from the Collier County Sheriff’s Office leads the Intercept Task Force, a coalition of 14 agencies stretching from Naples to Cape Coral. The rise in child exploitation cases is a shocking 2,309% jump since 2015. The task force’s first big bust centered on Jeremy Mannerberg, a 27-year-old who allegedly tried to sell a two-year-old child for sex on a dating site.
The digital age makes it easy for traffickers. With escort websites like Alligator Escort, Skip the Games, Mega Personals, and CityXGuide, these sites are ground zero for modern trafficking operations. The traffickers even price their services based on when traffic peaks: lunchtime, morning, after work, times when people can slip away unnoticed.
The task force has made headway, shutting down 17 sex trafficking businesses in Naples last year, including brothels that hid in plain sight among strip malls and neighborhoods up and down the coast. In a recent raid, they arrested 10 suspects connected to these brothels.
Between the numbers and the headlines, the story is clear. Sex trafficking thrives in the shadows, and sometimes, the only thing standing between safety and disaster is vigilance, especially with kids glued to their screens, home and seemingly safe, but potentially only a few clicks away from danger.
Click here for the website to Operation Red Light.
For more details, check out the official press release on the State Attorney’s Office website.
