Hillsborough man gets 30 years in human trafficking case

TAMPA — A Hillsborough County man ensnared in a sting that aimed to combat human trafficking ahead of the 2021 Super Bowl will spend the next 30 years in state prison.

Alvin Lynch Jr., 36, received the sentence Monday, about two months after a jury found him guilty of nine separate criminal charges, including three counts of human trafficking. One person identified as a victim in the case was just 17 years old.

Hillsborough Circuit Judge Christopher Sabella also ordered Lynch to serve 10 years of sex offender probation upon his release from prison.

Lynch was the most prominent arrest to emerge from what Hillsborough Sheriff’s officials termed “Operation Game Over.” It happened Feb. 5, 2021, two days before Super Bowl LV at Raymond James Stadium.

Sheriff’s detectives, tasked with making human trafficking arrests ahead of the big game, monitored a website that contained advertisements for prostitution. An undercover detective arranged to meet with a woman depicted in one of the ads in a room at the Clarion Hotel at 9331 Adamo Drive in Tampa.

A surveillance team that afternoon spotted a gray Lexus pull into the hotel parking lot. A woman got out and walked to the hotel room. She told the undercover detective she needed to text her “friend” to let him know she was all right. Shortly thereafter, she offered to commit a sex act. Deputies then detained her.

At the same time, deputies in the parking lot approached the Lexus. The driver, whom investigators later identified as Lynch, got out and began to run. He made it through the parking lots of some nearby businesses, according to court records, before deputies caught and arrested him.

Another man, Scott Fitzgerald, was stopped before getting out of the car’s passenger seat. Deputies found a handgun on the driver’s floorboard.

The woman, in an interview with detectives, said she’d lost her job a few weeks earlier. She became emotional as she discussed becoming involved in prostitution, according to court records. She said Lynch recruited her. She said she would give him photos of herself to post online. She also said that Lynch introduced her to his girlfriend, whom she knew as “D,” and who also was involved in commercial sexual activity. Deputies later learned that “D” was 17 years old.

The woman said Lynch always arranged the meetings with the men who responded to advertisements. He would keep half the money the men paid, she said, according to court records.

Deputies later went to Lynch’s home in Brandon, where they found the 17-year-old and a third person who was also identified as a human trafficking victim, according to court records.

Fitzgerald, the other man involved, was convicted of similar charges. He was sentenced in December to six years in prison.