14 People Arrested in Comic-Con Human Trafficking Sting

9:20 PM · July 31, 2024

Excerpt Hollywood Reporter hollywoodreporter.com

Fourteen people were arrested and 10 victims were recovered in a human trafficking sting during Comic-Con over the weekend, authorities said.

The operation to recover victims of sex trafficking and target sex buyers using the San Diego convention was initiated from July 25-27, according to the California Department of Justice’s San Diego Human Trafficking Task Force. ...

The anti-human trafficking operation consisted of law enforcement officials working undercover as sex buyers to identify and contact potential victims and arrest their traffickers. Authorities also posted undercover ads soliciting sex to arrest sex buyers.

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Author Commentary

Ed Morrissey Jul 31, 2024 9:20 PM ET

That's not a good look for Comic Con, but it's almost certainly more related to the event size than the nature of the content. The event draws over 100,000 attendees and travelers, and any cultural event of that size would likely attract the sleazier elements -- and the criminal elements.

Anyway, congratulations to all of the law enforcement agencies that liberated the victims of this trafficking. Great job. Now let's see if California will lock up the perps for a significant amount of prison time, or let them off the hook.