Over this week, I have covered human trafficking and the Sackler family’s settlement offer.
A few years ago, I covered both topics with trial attorney and best-selling author Mike Papantonio.
Papantonio and his firm, Levin Papantonio, were among the first to publicly address the opioid crisis, discussing it nearly a year before it gained mainstream media attention.
The crisis’s severity was stark: 150 people were dying daily from opioid-related causes.
Papantonio’s novel “Law and Addiction” tackled this issue, personalizing the devastating impact of opioid addiction on communities across America. The book’s narrative mirrors real stories found throughout the country, including in the Florida panhandle, demonstrating how the crisis affects communities regardless of geography or demographics.
His third novel, “Inhuman Trafficking,” revealed the disturbing reality of modern slavery and its deep connections to legitimate businesses. He exposed how trafficking operations are often integrated into mainstream industries:
– Wall Street financing of pornography operations that exploit trafficking victims
– Trucking industry’s role in transporting victims across state lines
– Hotels and hospitality services being used as fronts for trafficking operations
– Exploitation of H-2B workers, particularly from regions like Ukraine
Papantonio detailed a common trafficking scheme where victims are gradually moved from legitimate service industry jobs into exploitation through a process of escalating manipulation. The victims, often young women recruited from overseas, typically face a devastating life expectancy of just five years due to drug overdoses, homicide, suicide, sexually transmitted diseases, or despair.
He emphasized that human trafficking isn’t just about isolated incidents like those portrayed in movies such as “Taken.” Instead, it’s a complex, systematic operation that involves multiple industries and levels of society, from street-level criminals to Wall Street financiers. The victims range from internationally trafficked individuals to vulnerable domestic workers, all trapped in a system that prioritizes profit over human dignity.
Through his books and legal work, Papantonio continues to expose these critical issues, pushing back against what he sees as a deliberate media blackout driven by corporate interests. His approach combines factual legal cases with compelling narratives, making complex and disturbing realities accessible to the public while advocating for change and accountability.