International Journal on Criminology Volume 7, Number 2, Spring 2020 | Page 108

Human Trafficking Network Investigations
ic victims and the services they provided for each scheduled appointment. The indictments
further allege the secondary defendant owned the web domains discovered
early in the OSINT network analysis. These two defendants operated much of
the network remotely, without ever interacting with victims or customers. Further
down the operational hierarchy were the dispatchers and on-the-ground operators
of the residential brothels, who shuttled victims to appointments, facilitated
transportation of victims between cities, and maintained continuous business operational
needs.
This case demonstrates that an investigation using purely OSINT can almost
entirely map illicit networks of activity and identify specific individuals, which is
far more reach than previously believed. In this case, the OSINT network analysis
provided investigators with an overarching framework to connect more localized,
seemingly separate trafficking operations, known previously to law enforcement
in several cities, to a larger organized crime network operating on an international
scale. The open source data and analysis enabled federal, state, local, and
international law enforcement entities to more effectively gather evidence through
traditional, closed sources and undercover operations leading to indictment. An
operation of this magnitude could not be identified without proactively and iteratively
exploring the existing Memex dataset. Much more analysis still must be conducted
to fully understand the complexity of operating this vast illicit network and
translate our findings into lessons learned for application to future investigations.
Conclusion
The scale of the “Supermatchescort” case—the large number of advertisements,
customers, and the dispersion of victims across three continents—
demonstrates the growth of human trafficking networks with the rise of
new technology and the deployment of websites and social media to recruit victims
and advertise to customers. The large number of identified customers—thirty
thousand— and the relative low-cost of reaching these customers through online
advertisements and free application-based messaging platforms suggests this enterprise
was immensely profitable. The sophistication of criminals, in this case a
technologically savvy Chinese network, reveals the possibilities of expanding the
human trafficking business to unprecedented levels using innovative methods and
cyber strategies.
The analysis of this network with the use of OSINT aggregated by the Memex
dataset revealed an integrated business from its central figures in China and
Canada to the sale of women in Australia, Canada, and the United States. The
potential victims of human trafficking in this network were predominantly Chinese,
as were the lead facilitators of the online advertisements and the lower-level
dispatchers and operators. The operation functioned across continents with the
sale of victims contained within this closed network. This network resembles the
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