Sex trafficking victims rescued by undercover agents at Comic-Con

LOS ANGELES, United States (AFP) — Undercover officers posing as sex buyers at last week’s Comic-Con event in California rescued human trafficking victims, including a 16-year-old girl, and made multiple arrests, prosecutors said Wednesday.

A task force involving local San Diego police, federal officers and naval intelligence arrested 14 people who were attempting to buy sex at the giant pop culture gathering.

Ten victims were rescued, nine of them adults, said California Attorney General Rob Bonta.

“Unfortunately, sex traffickers capitalize on large scale events such as Comic-Con to exploit their victims for profit,” said Bonta, in a statement.

San Diego Comic-Con is one of the world’s largest pop culture events.

Around 135,000 people were expected to attend the convention, which lasted from Thursday to Sunday.

“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,” a spokesperson for Comic-Con said in a statement to Agence France-Presse.