Middlesex County is located in central New Jersey, and has a population of roughly 863,000, making it the state’s third-most populous county. Its government seat is the city of New Brunswick, which contains Rutgers University. Other noteworthy communities within the county include East Brunswick, Edison, and Perth Amboy.  Prostitution and sex trafficking have been well documented in the cities and surrounding areas of the county for decades, and have generated complaints to police and additional crimes such as child endangerment and drug offenses. For example, in 2003, two former New Brunswick police officers convicted of running a brothel were ordered to surrender to begin serving prison terms. Both men were 16-year veterans of the force, were sentenced to four and three years in prison, respectively, for their October 2000 convictions on charges of conspiracy, official misconduct and promoting prostitution. In November 2013, a state grand jury indicted an Edison Township man on first-degree charges of human trafficking, kidnapping and racketeering for allegedly enslaving women in a prostitution ring through violence and threats of violence, according to the Attorney General’s Office.  The alleged pimp (trafficker) was also indicted with another person on charges of racketeering conspiracy, receiving stolen property and promoting prostitution.  In February, 2020, a New Jersey man who allegedly lured women to engage in prostitution by use of force, violence and threats in and around Middlesex County appeared in federal court and was charged with coercion and enticement. From 2015 to 2019 the defendant coerced women to travel from various out of state locations, including Canada and New York, to New Jersey to engage in prostitution. He lured them with promises of large payments, and when they asked for the money, the man became aggressive, often assaulting and raping them, and never paid them. In February, 2022, a 62-year old woman was arrested on charges relating to a human trafficking and prostitution ring. An investigation into a human trafficking, prostitution, and money laundering organization operating throughout Bergen County, in northern New Jersey (including Middlesex County), and in New York.

Multiple cases of targeted violence against individuals engaged in local prostitution and sex trafficking (including prostituted persons, sex buyers, pimps, and traffickers) have also been documented. For example, in 2018, a 29-year-old New Brunswick man who served as an enforcer for a network of brothels across the state was convicted of multiple counts of murder and racketeering. A jury in U.S. District Court convicted the man on two counts murder in aiding racketeering, using a firearm for a violent crime, racketeering, racketeering conspiracy, assault with a dangerous weapon in aid of racketeering, and conspiracy to harbor aliens. According to documents filed in the case and the evidence at trial, the man served as an enforcer for a prostitution enterprise that helped illegal aliens enter the country and employed them at brothels throughout Cumberland, Essex, Mercer, Middlesex, Monmouth and Ocean counties. The enterprise used threats and acts of violence – including burglary, assaults, and murder – to expand its territory, thwart rival brothels, exact revenge, punish enterprise members and associates who had been disloyal, and silence people they believed were cooperating with law enforcement. The targeted murders of prostituted women have also been documented in the county, including in Perth Amboy and New Brunswick.  In 1995, a prostituted woman was bludgeoned to death in a Perth Amboy alley by a sex buyer “during a dispute over money,” and in 2004, a prostituted woman died after being stabbed 42 times by a “client” in a dispute over a fee of less than $20.

To combat the consumer-level demand for commercial sex that drives all prostitution and sex trafficking markets, and thus attracting all related crimes, the NBPD has has conducted reverse stings since at least 1992. The Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office has supported local law enforcement application of demand reduction tactics throughout the county.  For example, to combat the consumer-level demand for commercial sex that drives all prostitution and sex trafficking markets, and thus attracting all related crimes, the New Brunswick Police Department has has conducted reverse stings since at least 1992. The Perth Amboy Police Department has conducted reverse stings targeting buyers of prostituted women since at least 1993, using undercover female officers as decoy prostituted women “working” along major city streets. In 2011, due to complaints about prostitution received from the community, the Edison Police Department executed their first reverse sting operation, resulting in six arrests.  In the three months leading up to that reverse sting, 20 arrests had been made on charges of prostitution and promoting prostitution, but when this didn’t seem to impact the problem, police decided to switch their focus to the demand side of the commercial sex market and arrest sex buyers.  In February, 2018, a New Jersey rabbi and two New York City residents faced charges in connection with the alleged human trafficking of a Pennsylvania teenager. Middlesex County prosecutors said two individuals from the Bronx, coerced a 17-year-old Lancaster girl into having sex with roughly 30 men between January 1 and February 2 at an East Brunswick hotel. They were arrested and faced numerous charges, including criminal restraint and promoting prostitution. The rabbi, a 35-year-old man from East Brunswick, was allegedly among those who had sexually abused the girl in an East Brunswick hotel and then offered to buy additional time with her, gave her his number and later asked her to come to New York to meet him, federal prosecutors said. He was initially charged by Middlesex County prosecutors with engaging in “prostitution with a child” and child endangerment. He later  pleaded guilty to interstate travel in aid of a racketeering enterprise.