Linthicum, also known as Linthicum Heights, is an unincorporated community of approximately 10,000 residents, located near Baltimore Washington International Airport in Anne Arundel County, Maryland. It is part of a cluster of communities along the Route 295 corridor with substantial prostitution activity, and a correspondingly high level of law enforcement activity meant to deter and respond to prostitution and sex trafficking.

In May 2021, a former U.S. Marine was sentenced to serve more than four years in prison for human trafficking, prostitution, and drug offenses. The man was arrested during a sting operation in September 2019 after an undercover Anne Arundel County officer arranged to meet with a woman at a hotel in Linthicum. The woman said she had been forced into prostitution, driven from North Carolina to Maryland, and beaten and burned with cigarettes if she didn’t continue working. Her sex trafficker kept all of the approximately $30,000 from her commercial sex acts.

The Anne Arundel County Police Department has developed an aggressive approach to reduce prostitution by targeting sex buyers. Officers have conducted at least 4 web-based reverse stings since 2013 alone. In March 2013, seven men were arrested for attempting to buy sex from a decoy officer who advertised prostitution online; their names and ages were released to local news outlets. During a similar operation in October 2013, the AACPD reportedly received texts and emails from 51 phone numbers in response to a decoy listing they placed online. Officers ultimately arrested three sex buyers.

In December 2013, March 2014, and May 2014, roughly 30 sex buyers were arrested during AACPD web stings. As in prior operations, the men’s names and other identifying information were released to the public.