Mike Beaver (FBI agent)

Mike Beaver
Nationality American
Citizenship United States
Occupation Special agent
Employer Federal Bureau of Investigation
Known for Heading Operation Stormy Nights

Mike Beaver is a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agent and the coordinator of Oklahoma City's FBI Crimes Against Children.[1]

Career

In 2006, Beaver was speaking about the prostitution of children in the United States and said that "the girls are absolutely brainwashed. This is a business. It's not Pretty Woman."[2] Two years later, he said, "What we've learned is if you have adult prostitution in an area, there's probably child prostitution occurring as well."[3] He headed Operation Stormy Nights,[4] an early major anti-human-trafficking operation by the FBI.[5] During this sting operation, he worked as an undercover agent.[4] One of the human trafficking victims rescued in Stormy Nights was a girl named Angie, who was being prostituted to truck drivers at truck stops.[5] Beaver called Angie "a normal, typical American teenager."[4] At a hearing related to Stormy Nights, Beaver testified about Bobby Prince Jr. and Bobby Prince Sr., two of the accused. Beaver said that Bobby Prince Jr. had threatened the girls with a gun and that Bobby Prince Sr. had choked a girl who tried to escape.[6] Beaver was involved in Operation Precious Cargo, a major investigation into the prostitution of children in Pennsylvania.[7] Beaver was interviewed about human trafficking in the documentary film Not My Life, in which he says, "It's not just truck drivers. We're seeing them purchased and abused by both white collar and blue collar individuals."[8] While Robert Bilheimer interviewed Beaver for the film at a Midwestern truck stop like the ones at which Angie was trafficked, someone wrote "Fuck you, asshole!" in the dirt on Beaver's car. Bilheimer said that this act demonstrated that many truck drivers hate law enforcement, although he said that "there are some good truckers out there."[9] Beaver said that "pimps do actively recruit the young [because] the young child, sadly, brings more money, and the pimps know that."[10] Beaver investigated the brutal beating of Larry Floyd at Mississippi State Penitentiary[11] and the robbery of the Arvest Bank in Wagoner, Oklahoma in 2008.[12]

References

  1. ↑ Bay Fang (October 16, 2005). "Young Lives For Sale: Why more kids are getting into the sex trade - and how the feds are fighting back". U.S. News & World Report. Retrieved September 6, 2013.
  2. ↑ Alex Tresniowski (May 1, 2006). "Nightmare at the Truck Stop". People 65 (17). Retrieved September 5, 2013.
  3. ↑ Eric M. Strauss (July 14, 2008). "Domestic Sex Trafficking in the U.S.". ABC News. Retrieved September 6, 2013.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 John Dankosky (April 17, 2013). Human Trafficking: Modern Day Slavery. Connecticut Public Radio. Retrieved August 21, 2013.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Rhodes, p. 7.
  6. ↑ "Sex trafficking charges filed". The Topeka Capital-Journal. January 22, 2005. Retrieved September 6, 2013.
  7. ↑ "Intelligence Analyst Works to Save Kids". NewsBlaze. July 15, 2006. Retrieved September 6, 2013.
  8. ↑ Rhodes, p. 8.
  9. ↑ Rhodes, p. 46.
  10. ↑ "Selling Their Bodies". Retrieved September 6, 2013.
  11. ↑ John Hailman (2013). From Midnight to Guntown: True Crime Stories from a Federal Prosecutor in Mississippi. University Press of Mississippi. p. 210. ISBN 1617038008.
  12. ↑ Elizabeth Ridenour (January 17, 2008). "Wagoner man arrested after bank robbery, police chase". Muskogee Phoenix. Retrieved September 6, 2013.

Bibliography