The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) announced on Monday the arrest of five individuals suspected of human trafficking offenses.
Scott Elliot, Misty Harden, Hector Mendoza, Darwin Patterson, and Daris Eubanks were arrested last week.
Elliot is accused of one count of Trafficking for Commercial Sex Act. He got a bond of $65,000.
Harden is charged with one count of Aggravated Prostitution and Possession of a Schedule 2 drug. His bond was set at $45,000.
Mendoza and Eubanks received charges of one count of Solicitation of a Minor and Patronizing Prostitution of a Minor. Both defendants received a bond of $60,000.
Patterson is charged with one count of Promoting Prostitution. His bond is $30,000.
All of these people are being held at the Hamilton County Jail.
Harden, Mendoza, and Patterson are from Chattanooga.
Eubanks is from Soddy Daisy, and Elliot is from Georgia.
These arrests came about after law enforcement put decoy advertisements on websites where people seek commercial sex acts.
TBI’s Human Trafficking Task Force, along with the Soddy Daisy Police Department and the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office, conducted an undercover joint operation that led to these arrests.
Earlier in April, TBI arrested nine people for similar charges using decoy advertisements.
Every year by December 1, TBI must submit a report on human trafficking in the state.
According to the 2024 report, minor trafficking is the most common form of human trafficking in the state. This accounted for 44 percent of human trafficking cases last year, with 514 reports..
The number of minor trafficking reports has increased a lot since 2016, when only 66 cases were reported. This represented a 679 percent increase.
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Zachery Schmidt is the digital editor of The Star News Network. Email tips to Zachery at [email protected].Â
