Genesee County is located in eastern Michigan, and has a population of approximately 400,000.  The county seat and population center is the city of Flint.  Prostitution and sex trafficking are well-established problems in Flint and surrounding ares of the county, generating resident and business complaints to law enforcement agencies and including sex trafficking of children and people with special needs. For example, in 2019, three people were arrested and charged after officials alleged they had forced two women and one man into prostitution at gun point in order to repay their drug debt.  The numerous charges after authorities say the victims were allegedly forced to perform sexual acts against their will in order to repay a drug debt they owed to Scott. The Genesee County Sheriff’s Office had been tipped off to the situation by a confidential informant who said the victims were being marketed as prostitutes on a website.  One of the defendants had assaulted at least one of the victims extensively.  Authorities executing search warrants at  homes on in Burton and Flint believed to be connected to the incident and discovered an AR-15 rifle, crack cocaine, marijuana, used hypodermic needles, drug paraphernalia, pornography and condoms from the Burton home.  They also found a 6-month-old child who was turned over to child protective services, and they seized a computer allegedly used to post the victims on Backpage.com. The traffickers allegedly charged the victims $20 per day to utilize a bedroom in the home for sex acts. Defendants were arraigned on numerous charges including human trafficking, prostitution, unlawful imprisonment, using a computer to commit a crime, assault with a dangerous weapon, assault with intent to do great bodily harm less than murder, felon in possession of a firearm,  assault, possession of heroin and possession of cocaine, allowing a child to live in a house of prostitution, fourth-degree child abuse, and reckless use of a weapon.  In 2020, six missing children were recovered by the Genesee County Sheriff’s office, including a 16 year old person with special need who was locked in a barn surrounded by barbed wire, where numerous men paid to sexually abuse her.