Authorities in San Diego arrested 14 people and rescued 10 victims, including a 16-year-old, after an undercover human trafficking sting at the massive and popular Comic-Con International event in the Southern California city over the weekend.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced that the arrests on Wednesday were part of a joint investigation by the San Diego Human Trafficking Task Force aimed at “recovering” victims of sex trafficking and targeting sex buyers using the annual convention to seek out potential victims.
From Thursday through Sunday, the task force that also included the FBI, DOJ and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) conducted the undercover operation.
Comic-Con International is a comic book and pop culture event drawing more than 100,000 fans to San Diego each year.
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“Unfortunately, sex traffickers capitalize on large-scale events such as Comic-Con to exploit their victims for profit,” Bonta said in a press release.
“These arrests send a clear message to potential offenders that their criminal behavior will not be tolerated. We are grateful to all our dedicated partners involved in the San Diego Human Trafficking Task Force, whose collaboration has been invaluable. We take great pride in our office’s commitment to uplifting vulnerable Californians by offering them assistance and guidance when they need it most.” — California Attorney General Rob Bonta
The sting targeted sex buyers and focused on recovering potential victims of sex trafficking and arresting traffickers.
The AG’s office said law enforcement personnel worked undercover as sex buyers to identify and contact potential victims of trafficking and arrest their traffickers. As part of the operation, law enforcement personnel also posted undercover advertisements soliciting sex to arrest buyers.
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As a result of the three-day operation, 14 sex buyers were arrested, nine adult potential victims of sex trafficking were recovered and offered services, and one 16-year-old girl was recovered, officials said.
“Working together, teams identified and arrested more than a dozen individuals participating in these illegal acts in our City over the weekend. These results show our collective dedication to combating human trafficking and holding criminals accountable are working,” San Diego Police Chief Scott Wahl said.
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“San Diego proudly hosts special events like Comic-Con – highly attended events like these allow us to showcase our growing and beautiful city,” said Christopher Davis, acting special agent in charge of HSI San Diego. “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 Comic Convention sent Fox News Digital a statement that said it wasn’t aware of the sting operation.
“Obviously, we find this very disturbing and, while we were not made aware of this operation, it is our understanding that the arrests were made outside of the event,” the statement read. “We work closely with a variety of law enforcement entities throughout the year and stand ready to assist in any way we can.”
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