TBI Charges 5 After Two-Day Trafficking Bust Near Chattanooga

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The Tennessee Conservative Staff –

Five men face charges and seven women are being provided with resources after the TBI worked a two-day human trafficking operation.

The operation, which was conducted on August 25 and 26, was a joint effort among the TBI’s Human Trafficking Unit, the Tennessee Human Trafficking Task Force, the FBI’s Safe Streets Task Force, Homeland Security Investigations, the Chattanooga Police Department, the Office of 11th Judicial District Attorney General City Wamp and Grow Free Tennessee. 

Law enforcement officials worked to rescue possible victims of trafficking while also identifying other individuals who were involved in trafficking, promoting, recruiting, or soliciting others for commercial sex.

Those charged include: 

David Acevedo (DOB 6-19-1998): Simple Possession, Unlawful Carrying or Possession of a Weapon, Drug Paraphernalia, Promoting Prostitution

• Jermaine Suttles (DOB 9-6-1981): Promoting Prostitution

• Ian Strebeck (DOB 10-21-1989): Promoting Prostitution, Drug Paraphernalia

• Jonathan Harris (DOB 9-19-1979): Promoting Prostitution

• Brandon Nichols (DOB 7-18-1990): Manufacture/Sale/Delivery of Schedule II – Fentanyl

Several other individuals were cited or arrested on outstanding warrants that were unrelated to the operation. 

According to reports, several women were offered services from Grow Free Tennessee, a non-profit organization that provides resources for victims of human trafficking. Seven accepted those services while others declined.