A 56-year-old Fort Collins man known by the alias “Kowboy” is being held on a $500,000 bond after police charged him with human trafficking, pimping, pandering and money laundering following a nearly two-year investigation. Jason Battaglia was arrested on August 25 and booked into the Larimer County Jail, according to police.
Fort Collins Police Services determined that Battaglia forced at least two women to engage in commercial sexual activity for money or services on multiple occasions, as reported by the Denver Gazette. Police said the charges against him include two counts of human trafficking for sexual servitude, one count of pimping, one count of money laundering, and one count of pandering, all of which are felonies. Colorado law classifies human trafficking for sexual servitude as a Class 3 felony, and under Colorado Revised Statutes § 18-3-504 and § 18-1.3-401, that designation is treated as an extraordinary-risk crime, which can push maximum presumptive prison sentences up by as much as four years.
A Tip From Two Years Ago Led to This Arrest
The case traces back to October 2024, when Fort Collins Police Services received a tip about a possible human trafficking victim residing in the city, police said. That tip originated with the Laboratory to Combat Human Trafficking hotline, a nonprofit that operates Colorado's dedicated 24/7 Human Trafficking Hotline and fields roughly 1,200 call and text tips a year from communities across the state, according to The Exodus Road.
What followed was a multi-jurisdictional investigation involving numerous witness and victim interviews across several jurisdictions, with direct assistance from Homeland Security Investigations and the Park County Sheriff's Office. The scope of that cooperation underscores how long and complex trafficking cases can be to build, particularly when they rely on victims willing to come forward and describe their experiences to investigators.
Police Say They Believe There Are More Victims
Fort Collins Police Services says it is concerned there could be additional victims connected to Battaglia beyond the two identified so far. The department is asking anyone with information about Battaglia or the case to contact Larimer County Crime Stoppers at (970) 221-6868.
The arrest lands amid a broader statewide reckoning with how trafficking cases are prosecuted in Colorado. Research from the Laboratory to Combat Human Trafficking shows that of roughly 300 trafficking cases reported statewide since 2014 reforms, only 55 have resulted in criminal prosecutions, according to 9News. Anti-trafficking experts attribute the low prosecution rate to trauma barriers that keep victim-witnesses from testifying. Closer to home, crime data compiled by the Common Sense Institute shows Larimer County recorded 41 total human trafficking cases in Colorado Bureau of Investigation databases through 2025.
State Lawmakers Have Been Tightening the Rules
Colorado legislators moved this year to close some of those gaps. Senate Bill 26-075, passed by the Colorado General Assembly in 2026, established mandatory minimum midpoint prison sentences for trafficking convictions and gave judges new power to scrutinize whether bond funds come from criminal activity. Northern Colorado law enforcement has also been ramping up enforcement efforts of its own; in May, the Larimer County Sheriff's Office ran an undercover sting targeting commercial sexual exploitation that resulted in multiple felony arrests.
Voters may soon weigh in further. The Colorado Secretary of State confirmed in March that Initiative 108 qualified for the statewide ballot, a measure that would impose mandatory life imprisonment without parole for human trafficking offenses involving minors, according to Ballotpedia. It remains unclear whether Homeland Security Investigations will pursue additional federal charges against Battaglia, or whether the department's public appeal for information will turn up further victims.
