16-year-old sex trafficking victim, 9 others, rescued at Comic-Con after major bust
A 16-year-old girl and nine others were rescued from sex traffickers during a mಌajor sting ope💛ration at Comic-Con in San Diego last weekend.
The underage girl and other victims were being for🌺ced to work as prostitudes servicing attendees at the star-studded gathering of fans, authorities said.
During a three-day operation, undercover agents were able to identify the women and remove them from the people traffick⛄in✅g them.
Posing as sex buyers, the California law enforcement officers made contact with the victims and then attempted to identify their🍒 traffickers, California Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office said.
Operatives also posted advertisements soliciting sex to identify bꦡuyers.
No traf🙈fickers were arrested in th🌌e operation, but the agents were able to lure out and arrest 14 johns.
The victims were offered support services, according to the AG’s office.
“Unfortunately, sex traffickers capitalize on large-scale events such as Comic-Con to exploit their vic🎃tims for profit,” said Bonta in a statement.
“These arrꦛests send a clear message to potential offenders that their cr🌱iminal behavior will not be tolerated.”
C𝐆omic-Con regularly draw��s more than 130,000 attendees.
“There is no more insidious crime than human trafficking,” San Diego Sheriff Kelly Martinez said in a statement. “The coercion and violence which🥃 enslaves people for profit, and places them into forced labor or sex is criminal.”
It was not the firs🐎t time Comic-Con has ⛄been at the center of controversy.
In 2014, an organization of women called Geeks for CONsent gathered nearly 3,000 signatures demanding the event adopt a formal anti-harassment policy after what they described as an atmosphere of sexual harassment at the event.
The group interviewed female attendees who described being frequently groped, unwillingly photographed and even followed while at Co𒊎mic-Con. They also complained of a pervasive atmosphere🃏 of sexual objectification of women.
Comic-Con organizers said at the time that the saඣfety of its attendees was paramount, and promised to im꧟prove security.