Wesley Chapel resident Sophia Contino (who was featured in our last issue) presented Pasco Sheriff Chris Nocco with a check for $3,200 to help fund Kevlar vests for Nocco’s K-9 deputies.
Sophia who lives in Meadow Pointe and attends Sand Pine Elementary, is an 8-year-old who wants to save canine lives by providing the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office (PCSO)’s K-9 officers with bulletproof vests.
Sofia came up with the idea of having a lemonade stand to raise the money.
“The reason I am raising money is, I love dogs and I love people,” Sophia said in our previous story.
Sophia, whose father Jason works for Wesley Chapel Nissan, where Nocco held a fund raiser for his re-election campaign, has now raised nearly $6,000 in just a few months by selling lemonade at the dealership and other locations.
‘Sophia’s money will only be used for the K-9 unit, not my campaign,’ Nocco said. ‘I want to make that very clear.’— GN
Sting Operation In Wesley Chapel Proves Successful
Speaking of Nocco, his department continues to work hard towards stopping human trafficking.
January was National Human Trafficking Awareness Month, and the PCSO ended the month by staging a two-day sting operation in Wesley Chapel that resulted in 20 arrests for prostitution and drug possession.
PCSO used the Econo Lodge on S.R. 54 just west of I-75 as a staging ground for its sting operation, operating out of a handful of rooms to make a series of arrests. The Econo Lodge gave permission for PCSO to use its location.
“The big issue for us was human trafficking, that’s what they were looking for,’’ said PCSO spokesman Eddie Daniels. “It’s an important, serious issue.”
While the sting operation did not find any evidence of human or sex trafficking, it has been a point of emphasis for Nocco’s department.
Florida is third in the nation annually in cases of human trafficking (behind California and Texas), and nearby Hillsborough County is second to Orange County (Orlando area) in the state.
According to a recent Neighborhood News story about trafficking as well as the PCSO website, there are roughly 300,000 cases of child sex trafficking reported every year, and it is estimated between 500,000 and 2 million people are trafficked annually worldwide, with an estimated 15-18,000 being trafficked into the U.S. each year.
The proliferation of social media and websites have helped lead to more trafficking, so the Sheriff’s Office used ads on a website to lure many of those arrested Jan. 29-31 to the Wesley Chapel motel.
Among the 20 people arrested, two had Wesley Chapel addresses. The others were from as far away as Nova Scotia, Canada, and Ocala and Spring Hill, FL.—JCC
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