Corpus Christi (KIII news) — A local district judge decided Monday to triple the bond for a mother accused of selling her 7-year-old son to pay off a drug debt.
Esmerelda Garza appeared in Inna Kline's 105th District Court, and her bond was increased to $300,000.
According to Kline, if Garza made bond, she would still be under house arrest and would have to stay away from any of the alleged victims in the case.
3News met with child trafficking experts to find out how the public can get involved to prevent crimes such as Garza's to happen.
Experts said that if a child is being sold anywhere, chances are the person buying has intentions to traffick them for sex and the Coastal Bend isn't immune to the horrific crime.
"There 79,000 children being trafficked in the state of Texas," said Minta Moore, executive director of New Life Refuge Ministries.
According to Moore, a child, and human trafficking, in general, is a supply and demand business.
"If there were not people out there demanding this, there would be no need for the supply to be met," Moore said.
Moore's mission is to provide a safe place for underage victims but also to educate the public about how to prevent human trafficking in their neighborhoods.
"I would suggest finding out what it looks like. How to recognize it. I tell people if something doesn't look right, it's probably not right," Moore said.
According to Moore, every profession that visits home's should have training on what to look out for in situations.
"From the cable guy cause, they are in-house. There's not any furniture, but yet there seems to be a bit like electronic computer video games. Things like that," Moore said.
Just in Corpus Christi, there were 29 children identified as sex trafficking victims in one year.
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