Organized retail crime is a pervasive problem in the retail industry. When merchandise disappears off the shelves and is resold by sophisticated criminal groups, retailers understandably feel frustrated and angry.
But what about when the criminal behavior of a shoplifting ring is actually connected to something even more ominous than a high shrink rate? What about when it’s tied to human trafficking?
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This is exactly the question posed by Tom Meehan, CFI, LPM contributing writer, in a feature article for the August 2018 issue of LPM Online. The connection is there: the New York Daily News wrote about it last January, according to Meehan. He’s also seen some of the real dangers between shoplifting ring activity and human trafficking as an investigator. From the article:
A group of women ranging in age from fourteen to 48 were arrested as a part of a large credit‑card fraud ring operation in Queens, New York. It turned out that they were buying goods with stolen credit cards by day and were forced into prostitution at night. I personally interviewed one who told me, “I thought America was going to be safer than anywhere else in the world. I was wrong.”
Meehan goes on to talk about ways by which ORC investigators might be able to detect victims of human trafficking during interviews. Read “How ORC Fuels Human Trafficking” for the full story.
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