With Comic-Con less than a week away, community advocates are getting the word out about human trafficking.
Comic-Con and events like the popular convention draw thousands of people. Human traffickers are equally drawn to such crowds for more sinister reasons.
Finishing touches on the make believe of Comic-Con are being made in the Gaslamp Quarter. On Monday afternoon though, the very real endangerment of human trafficking was heard over it.
“We see victims that aren’t even from San Diego that have been brought here from somewhere else,” District Attorney Summer Stephan said.
Stephan joined San Diego police and community advocates on a campaign to promote human trafficking awareness.
This weekend, 130,000 people will swarm to San Diego for the popular cosplay event. Advocates say it’s not the costumes but the crowds that attract sex buyers and traffickers.
“I’m free. I am not in my hometown. I can do whatever I please, and nobody is going to know,” advocate Marisa Ugarte said. “Anonymity is what brings them here and thinking they can do whatever they can, and they can’t.”
Ugarte created the Bilateral Safety Corridor 20 years ago to help stop the exploitation of women.
“It’s very detrimental and very sad,” Ugarte said.
NBC 7’s Dave Summers takes a closer look at the sting operation and why the suspects were targeting Comic-Con.
The district attorney says that last year over Comic-Con, the San Diego’s Human Trafficking Task Force arrested 14 sex buyers and rescued at least eight victims. One of them was a 16-year-old girl.
Ugarte’s organization helped some of the rescued women in their 20s.
Advocates also made mention of Assembly Bill 379. It’s a bill on the governor’s desk and ready for signature. It makes it a felony trafficking anyone under the age of 18. An earlier state law excluded 16- and 17-year-olds. Advocates say that was a flawed decision.
“It has been a long fight,” Stephan said. “It’s about time that we treat our children with the dignity and care that they should be treated with.”
San Diego police say the effort to deter trafficking in the crowds of Comic-Con continues with the task force. Last year, it involved 35 to 50 agents. Some posed as sex buyers to contact potential victims. Fake advertisements soliciting sex were posted to reveal buyers.
Comic-Con may be the ultimate masquerade, but the task force is determined to reveal sex trafficking activities that may use the crowd for cover.
According to the group, San Diego ranks 13th in a number of large cities across the country for human trafficking crimes.