MINNEAPOLIS - Two weeks after the Super Bowl local police have a better picture of the types of crimes the big game brought to Minnesota.
Minneapolis police released new stats Tuesday morning regarding the amount of counterfeiters and sex traffickers officers took into custody that week.
Police confiscated 154 counterfeit tickets in the days leading up to the big game. They say the value of those tickets totaled nearly a million dollars.
Police also seized more than 7,500 pieces of counterfeit merchandise and memorabilia.
"Those items had an estimated value of approximately $520,000," Minneapolis police commander Christopher Granger says.
The Counterfeit Merchandise and Ticketing Unit arrested 19 people Super Bowl weekend.
Police say five different types of tickets were found that week and all of them were fairly well made.
"The front looks very similar, but the best way to tell the difference is with the heat-sensitive ink on the back that you can rub away with your finger," Minneapolis Lt. Kim Lund explains.
"That ticket feature is very hard to recreate."
Police from several local agencies also organized a crackdown on sex trafficking during Super Bowl week.
Officers involved in Operation Guardian Angel arrested 94 men who responded to online sex ads.
"For too many years we have been focused on the victims of this. They are the ones who need help to escape this," Minneapolis Chief Medaria Arrandondo says.
28 of those female victims were referred by police to local support agencies.
Police say the issue of sex trafficking though, goes much further than just the big game.
"If there's an increase, it's a minor increase," Sgt. Grant Snyder explains. "It's not what people have inflated that to be."
Snyder says their data shows the amount of online sex ads remains relatively flat throughout the year.
He says the responses they get from sex ads the department sets up to catch buyers suggests other big events may actually increase trafficking more than the Super Bowl does.
"Things like deer hunting and the fishing opener may actually increase trafficking in certain regions more so than a big event like this," Snyder explains.