Six arrests were made in Oxford on Friday for procuring prostitution as apart of a joint undercover human trafficking investigation, according to a statement from Mississippi Attorney General’s Office and the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation Special Victims Unit. 

The Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics, the Lafayette County Sheriff’s Office and the Oxford Police Department also assisted in the investigation. 

“My office will continue to work with private and public federal, state and local partners, including our partners at MBI, to hold those who engage in this modern slavery accountable to the fullest extent of the law and seek justice for those who are its victims,”  State Attorney General Lynn Fitch said. 

Michael Keenum, Tarus Hervey, Roy Thompson, Kenneth Gurley, Jason Carothers and James Moore were arrested in the sting and charged with procuring prostitution. Hervey was also charged with resisting arrest. Lieutenant Colonel Lee Morrison, director of the MBI, said the operation was part of a state-wide operation to end the “continued scourge of sex trafficking” in Mississippi. 

“The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation will continue to conduct such operations throughout the state targeting those who traffic the vulnerable and those who purchase or seek to purchase human beings,” Morrison said. 

Citizens who have information about human trafficking are encouraged to call the National Human Trafficking Hotline at 1-888-373-7888.