A massive operation to rescue victims of human trafficking and arrest offenders was carried out over the weekend at San Diego’s Comic-Con, resulting in the arrests of 14 “sex buyers” and the recovery of 10 victims, including a 16-year-old girl.
The investigation was led by the San Diego Human Trafficking Task Force, which specifically used Comic-Con as a backdrop for its sting operation. The world-famous convention doesn’t just attract comic book fans, but criminals too, according to California Attorney General Rob Bonta.
“Unfortunately, sex traffickers capitalize on large-scale events such as Comic-Con to exploit their victims for profit,” Bonta said. “These arrests send a clear message to potential offenders that their criminal behaviour will not be tolerated.”
Law enforcement workers went undercover as potential customers to find victims of trafficking and arrest their traffickers. At the end of the three-day operation, authorities rescued nine adult victims of sex trafficking and one 16-year-old minor.
“Child Welfare Services and adult and juvenile support service advocates were on scene to provide support as needed,” according to a news release.
The operation also involved posting “undercover advertisements soliciting sex to arrest sex buyers.” Fourteen people were arrested on solicitation charges.
“There is no more insidious crime than human trafficking,” San Diego Sheriff Kelly Martinez said, condemning the “coercion and violence which enslaves people for profit and places them into forced labor.”
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“I appreciate the focus that was placed on the recent convention to identify and rescue victims of human trafficking.”
The acting special agent in charge of Homeland Security (HSI) for San Diego also praised law enforcement for using the 2024 Comic-Con as a way to root out human trafficking.
“San Diego proudly hosts special events like Comic-Con — highly attended events like these allow us to showcase our growing and beautiful city,” Christopher Davis said. “However, when people use these events as an opportunity to prey upon minors, HSI and our law enforcement partners will find you and bring you before a court of law to face criminal charges. There is no place for alleged predators to operate in our city and HSI is committed to helping the victims of these crimes.”
San Diego police Chief Scott Wahl lauded the sting operation for rescuing 10 victims of human trafficking, “including a girl of just 16 years old.”
“These results show our collective dedication to combatting human trafficking and holding criminals accountable are working.”
The San Diego Comic Convention told NBC San Diego that it was not aware of the sting, but that the results of the operation were “very disturbing.”
“It is our understanding that the arrests were made outside of the event. We work closely with a variety of law enforcement entities throughout the year and stand ready to assist in any way we can,” the convention said.
The San Diego Human Trafficking Task Force is a co-operative effort involving multiple agencies, including the California Department of Justice, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Homeland Security Investigations, California Highway Patrol and several local law enforcement departments.
The Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) also assisted in the operation.