Chaves County, New Mexico has a population of approximately 65,000, and its county seat is the city of Roswell. Prostitution has been a well-documented problem in Roswell and throughout the county for over 100 years. In 1914, Roswell adopted an ordinance making prostitution a misdemeanor. More recently, the Chavez County Sheriffs Office and the Roswell Police Department have participated in operations of the New Mexico Human Trafficking Task Force.

Consumer level demand provides the revenue stream for all prostitution and sex trafficking, and has therefore been targeted by local law enforcement agencies as a strategy for prevention and response. Demand reduction tactics used in the town include the arrest of sex buyers and the public disclosure of their identities. For example, in December, 2022, the United States Attorney for the District of New Mexico and Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Albuquerque Field Office announced that a local man was arrested and charged by criminal complaint with sex trafficking of children. According to a criminal complaint, the investigation began in November 2022 when law enforcement officers in Chaves County, New Mexico, responded to a reported sexual assault involving a 12-year-old victim. The man allegedly had paid money to the child in exchange for engaging in sexual abuse activity on three occasions, beginning in September, 2022.  The man allegedly first contacted the child via Snapchat two or three years earlier, when she was 10 or 11 years old. The man learned of the child’s address and parked outside her residence. The suspect allegedly gave $90 to the girl and another victim for sexual abuse.