Redwood Falls is a city of about 5,000 residents and is the county seat of Redwood County, located in southwestern Minnesota along the Redwood River near its confluence with the Minnesota River. Prostitution and sex trafficking have not been well-documented within the city, but it has occurred in the greater county area. There has been at least one sex trafficking sting conducted in the city to address the demand side of the local commercial sex market.

In June 2017, three men were arrested on felony charges during a sting operation designed to target demand for underage sex trafficking. “Operation Guardian Angel” was conducted by a regional drug task force and a human trafficking task force, with officers posting ads on Backpage.com and Craigslist.org posing as 15- and 17-year-old girls to identify individuals soliciting minors for sex. Respondents arranged meetings at a house in Redwood Falls, and one buyer asked for nude photos and wanted her to flash her breasts to assure him she was not in law enforcement. The men were charged with engaging in, hiring, or agreeing to hire a minor to engage in prostitution. Their names, ages, and hometowns were publicly released. This was a unique operation and the first of its kind to occur in Redwood County. The multi-jurisdictional operation was conducted by the BLR Drug Task Force (Brown, Lyon, Redwood, and Renville County) and Washington County Human Trafficking Task Force in partnership with Minneapolis, Woodbury, Lower Sioux, and Sleepy Eye Police plus the Redwood and Renville County Sheriff’s Offices.