Plymouth County covers an area in southeast Massachusetts, about 20 miles south of Boston, and has a population of roughly 520,000. Problems with local sex trafficking, prostitution, and related offenses such as drugs, weapons, and child sexual abuse materials (CSAM, often referred to in legal codes as “child pornography”).  For example, in June, 2015, ten people were arrested following a sex trafficking and prostitution sting focusing on three massage parlors in Plymouth. The Plymouth County District Attorney and Plymouth Police Chief said the nine people arrested faced charges ranging from trafficking of a person for sexual servitude, maintaining a house of prostitution, sexual conduct for a fee and possession of “child pornography” for their roles in the operation of illegal massage parlors in Plymouth. They were arraigned in Plymouth District Court. The investigation involved Plymouth Police, the U.S. Department of State and the state Division of Professional Licensure.

Police have conducted both web-based and street-level reverse stings, and publicized the identities of the men arrested for buying sex.  In 2007,  State Police arrested six men in a series of online stings in Plymouth County, including two who tried to solicit a police officer posing as a 15-year-old girl offering prostitution on an internet bulletin board.  Complaints about prostitution to police play a role in conducting stings.