14 arrested in sex-trafficking sting at Comic-Con Convention, 10 victims rescued

[TaylorSwift 162,283]

An anti-human trafficking operation at San Diego Comic-Con resulted in 14 people being arrested, California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced Wednesday.

From July 25 to July 27, the San Diego Human Trafficking Task Force conducted a human trafficking sting “aimed at recovering victims of sex trafficking and targeting sex buyers using the San Diego Comic-Con Convention to seek out potential victims,” according to a release from the California Department of Justice. Ten victims were recovered and offered services.

“Unfortunately, sex traffickers capitalize on large scale events such as Comic-Con to exploit their victims for profit,” said Bonta. “These arrests send a clear message to potential offenders that their criminal behavior will not be tolerated. "

The largest comic and pop culture convention in the world, San Diego Comic-Con draws some 100,000 people to the downtown Convention Center each year.

Law enforcement personnel went undercover as sex buyers to arrest traffickers and recover potential victims of human trafficking. They also posted undercover ads soliciting sex to arrest sex buyers. By the end of the operation, nine potential adult victims and one 16-year-old juvenile were recovered.

https://variety.com/2024/film/news/comic-con-sex-trafficking-arrests-1236091992/

[Lucas 31,087]

But where do they find traffickers? Dark web? I can't imagine all the crazy **** that might be on there...

[Togekiss 3,122]

1 minute ago, Lucas said:

But where do they find traffickers? Dark web? I can't imagine all the crazy **** that might be on there...

The article says they posed as buyers to contact the victims and get information about their traffickers that way. I really hope a lot of those arrested were actually traffickers too.

Often they don’t really go after the pimps and people running the organizations in operations like this. Most of the time, they’re arresting buyers or “Johns”.

It’s kind of like them patting themselves on the back for arresting people buying drugs as “fighting drug trafficking” but not arresting the people who smuggle or sell the drugs.

Either way I’m grateful that victims were helped.