An anti-human trafficking sting at last weekend's San Diego Comic-Con International resulted in 14 arrests of people seeking to purchase sex and the recovery of 10 potential sex trafficking victims, authorities announced Wednesday.
The operation involved law enforcement officers working undercover as sex buyers in order to identify traffickers and victims, as well as the posting of fake advertisements soliciting sex.
From Thursday through Saturday, 14 alleged sex buyers were arrested and 10 victims recovered, including one who was 16 years old, according to the California Attorney General's Office, which said support services were provided for the victims.
"Unfortunately, sex traffickers capitalize on large scale events such as Comic-Con to exploit their victims for profit," California Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a statement.
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The operation was conducted by the multi-agency San Diego Human Trafficking Task Force, composed of federal and state law enforcement agencies and prosecutorial offices.
"Everyone is in disguise. It's like Halloween. They feel like they are invisible," Marisa Ugarte, the director of the Bilateral Safety Corridor Coalition, told NBC 7.
Ugarte is cheering on the 35 to 50 undercover officers with the San Diego Human Trafficking Task Force working Comic-Con daily to make so many arrests.
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"Find the buyers or predators of the 14 people arrested for me was like, 'Yeah, 10 women, one of them just 16 years old, the rest in their 20s and 30s were liberated from their traffickers in this sting operation,'" Ugarte said.
Ugarte's organization will be caretaking some of those adults.
"We do crisis intervention, case management. We find them jobs, housing and everything," Ugarte explained.
San Diego ranks 13th for human trafficking among large cities. Bonta says he's working sex trafficking cases in the area all year round.
"We will detect you. We will dismantle your operation. We will arrest you and hold you accountable," Bonta said.
The 14 arrested face solicitation charges.
In a statement to NBC 7 on Wednesday, the San Diego Comic Convention said: "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. We work closely with a variety of law enforcement entities throughout the year and stand ready to assist in any way we can."
For someone whose organization takes credit for liberating more than 3,000 victims since its creation in 2005, Ugarte calls this Comic-Con sting a success.
"This is a big number on one operation," Ugarte said.
