Waynesville is a city in North Carolina of approximately 10,000 residents located between the Great Smokey and Blue Ridge mountains, about 20 miles west of Asheville. It is the county seat and largest city in Haywood County, and it is the largest city in North Carolina west of Asheville. Prostitution and sex trafficking have been well-documented in the city.

Police have been conducting reverse stings since 1997 and began conducting web-based reverse stings in 2005. In one web-based reversal, Waynesville police used a house in Hazelwood as a meeting place for arrests. Men responding to a decoy Craigslist ad drove from as far as Tennessee. An undercover female officer met the men at the door, while a surveillance team waited in a back room. The operation resulted in the arrests of seven men, including one Episcopal priest. One of the men had arranged to have sex with a 12 to 14 year old girl.

In December 2015, a Waynesville mother was arrested on allegations of soliciting prostitution and running her business from her home, where her young kids lived. An undercover operation started by Waynesville police led to her arrest that included the county’s drug task force.