In another local case of alleged human trafficking, a federal grand jury in Minneapolis has indicted a New Jersey man for allegedly enticing a 16-year-old Minnesota girl into prostitution.

Floyd Henry, 32, of Newark, N.J., has been charged with two counts of inducing travel to engage in criminal sexual activity. He is currently jailed in Colorado.

According to investigators, Henry persuaded the girl to travel with him to Chicago and Denver to work as a prostitute between August 2009 and April 2010. Henry also allegedly persuaded an adult woman to travel with him and engage in prostitution between August and October 2009.

Henry faces 20 years in prison for each charge. The case is the result of a joint investigation by the FBI, the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Homeland Security Investigations.

Those agencies played a key role in the major human trafficking case involving 29 alleged members of local Somali street gangs who have been charged with coercing four girls from Minnesota into prostitution. Several defendants in that case are awaiting trial in Nashville.

Federal officials say the Twin Cities metro area is one of the 15 largest human-trafficking centers in the nation.

ICE, which has investigators working with BCA agents and local police on the Gerald Vick Human Trafficking Task Force, has made human trafficking a priority. The Vick Task Force was started with a federal grant in 2005 through the St. Paul Police Department. Having federal agents on the task force allows investigations to cross state lines to follow trafficking operations.

In its five years, the task force has opened more than 50 investigations resulting in state and federal charges against 70 people.

The Somali case is the largest to date, but the task force also took down a trafficking operation involving eight brothels in 2007. All 23 defendants in that case were found guilty.

James Walsh • 612-673-7428