SALISBURY — Multiple Rowan County organizations came together on Thursday to speak about the effects of human trafficking and to raise awareness for the issue. Thursday was national Human Trafficking Awareness Day and January is national Human Trafficking Awareness Month.

The event was hosted by Rowan-Cabarrus Community College in partnership with the Salisbury Police Department and Project Light, and included testimony from survivors of human trafficking.

Deven Tucker spoke about his experience, telling the story of how he fell into the trap of trafficking in Detroit and what happened between then and receiving his freedom in a sting operation in Florida. Tucker said that he became homeless at a young age, living in abandoned buildings at the age of 14.

“I was in the drug game. I lived a life of desperately crying out for help, I just didn’t know how to cry. I didn’t know how to express. I’d been shot, stabbed, locked up. I was full of anger. I was full of rage. I’d watch other kids in school get Christmas gifts, while I come home and try to figure out what I could eat and all I could find was toast,” said Tucker.

Tucker said he spent his teenage years “ripping and running” on the streets, until he was arrested. He said he was eventually released from jail on a legal technicality, at which point he lived in a homeless shelter called the Covenant House. There, he struggled to move forward with life, eventually selling pirated CDs and DVDs to earn any income. When the shelter found out, he was told that he could either be reported to the police or join a program that travels the country selling books and magazines.

Tucker joined the program and was unable to sell any books or magazines on either his first or second day of work.

“They said ‘No, it doesn’t work like that. Who’s going to pay for your travel? Who’s going to pay for your food? Who’s going to pay for the credentials that we provided for you to sell the books and magazines?’ They made me do it. I was forced to have sex with women and with men, all ages, because the dollar does not discriminate when it comes to human trafficking,” said Tucker.

Tucker was forced at gunpoint to become a victim of sex trafficking. For over a year, Tucker was taken from state to state and forced to have sex with strangers.

“I’d watch people get beat who tried to escape, and there’s a point where you give up and you don’t want to escape. I had it in my mind, at a certain point, that I thought because of the things that I’ve done in my life, that this was just the life for me. It no longer became being numb, I actually became the situation,” said Tucker.

Tucker was freed on Feb. 6, 2011 when the FBI, with help from the Florida Abolitionists group, performed a sting operation at the hotel where he was being held. The next day, Tucker said he still found himself wearing a hoodie, sweatpants and sunglasses in 90-degree weather because he was still afraid.

“I was still a victim. I do not know what it was like to have freedom, nor the responsibility of freedom,” said Tucker.

Wayne Laney, a criminal justice instructor at RCCC, shared statistics about the size of the human trafficking issue in the world. Laney said that the U.S. Department of State that human trafficking is a $150-billion-a-year industry and that at any one point in time, 27.6 million people are being trafficked.

Laney also provided warning signs of human trafficking that people should look for. Laney said that physical injuries such as branding or tattoos of names or bar codes on the person’s face or chest are typical warning signs. Laney also said to watch for groups of people who arrive in one vehicle at large stores. If the people try not to speak with anyone and one person pays for all of the items, typically toiletry items, then it could be a sign of human trafficking. Laney also a sign could be a fence at a business or other location that appears to be meant to keep people in, not out.

“We have the ability and we need to help our law enforcement departments. We have the ability to be a force multiplied. We’re the eyes and ears in the community,” said Laney.

Laney said that the instances of human trafficking will likely increase in the future due to the increased law enforcement emphasis on fighting human trafficking in Cabarrus and Mecklenburg counties. That emphasis could push the traffickers up the interstate into Rowan County.

Salisbury Mayor Karen Alexander provided the proclamation declaring Jan. 11 as human trafficking day in the city. Sen. Carl Ford spoke about the need to increase the emphasis on training for law enforcement on how best to combat human trafficking. Tucker and survivor Oriel Eksi also held a question and answer session at the end of the event.

The National Human Trafficking Hotline number is 888-373-7888 and can connect victims of human trafficking or provide witness reports of human trafficking to local law enforcement or support systems.