Georgia – A man from Conyers is going to prison for trafficking a missing adolescent and two adult women in metro Atlanta. This is a grim milestone in a complicated human trafficking investigation that has already resulted in in the apprehension of more than a dozen people.
Earlier this week, Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr said that Terry Florence, 34, has been sentenced to 40 years in prison, with half of that time to be served in prison and the other half on probation under tight restrictions. Florence is now a convicted sex offender and will have to register as one for the rest of his life. A DeKalb County Superior Court Judge gave the sentence following a long investigation and trial that has gradually presented how far and how severely human trafficking networks hurt people in Georgia.
In August 2020, police found a 17-year-old girl who had been missing from Kansas City, Missouri, at a hotel in Fulton County. This started the case against Florence. Her recovery was part of Operation “Not Forgotten,” a big effort by the U.S. Marshals Service to save kids in danger throughout the state. During that operation alone, authorities found 26 missing children and safely located 13 others, while arresting nine individuals linked to child exploitation.
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Attorney General Carr’s Human Trafficking Prosecution Unit got to work right away after rescuing the 17-year-old victim. Investigators quickly found out that this one case was only the beginning. The task force did a lot of work to find, charge, and convict 13 people, including Florence, who were responsible for trafficking the teen and taking advantage of other victims. Four of those 13 were directly involved in selling the victims, and nine were customers. The investigation also found three more victims: two adults and a 15-year-old child.
In June 2021, Florence was first charged with trafficking for both a 17-year-old girl and an adult woman. The prosecution’s investigation didn’t end there. By July 2023, they had enough evidence to file further charges after discovering another woman who had been trafficked by Florence.
Carr emphasized the relentless nature of these investigations and the urgent need to root out both sellers and buyers from these criminal networks.
“Behind every seller is a line of buyers, and we must do all we can to take them down before another child is abused and exploited. This cause is worthy of all our efforts, and we will continue to give it everything we have until human trafficking no longer exists in this state,” Carr said.
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Since it started in 2019, the Attorney General’s Human Trafficking Prosecution Unit has made a lot of success. It has gotten more than 60 people convicted and saved more than 200 children. The squad is based in Atlanta, although it has specialized investigators in Macon and Augusta. It is part of the larger Prosecution Division, which also deals with instances of organized retail theft, gangs, and white-collar crime.
