Probes Link Human Trafficking to Sex, Slave Trade

More than a dozen investigations of human trafficking underway in Los Angeles could involve dozens of women and children in the sex and slavery trade, according to a report issued Friday by the city of Los Angeles.

City Councilman Tony Cardenas announced the results of a yearlong study at a morning news conference that included local officials and activists. Although details of the investigations were not provided, he vowed to intensify efforts to crack down on trafficking.

“It’s easy for these people to get lost in the shuffle,” Cardenas said. “Most people don’t know what human trafficking is, and when you explain it to them, they say, ‘So what?’ But it’s going on right here, in Los Angeles.”

Immigration and Customs officials raided a South Los Angeles brothel last year and found undocumented workers who had been forced into prostitution as a way to pay the cost of being smuggled into the U.S.

“A lot of people are promised jobs once they come here, but when they get here, they’re forced into labor or the sex trade,” said Frank Cannon, a lawyer under contract with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to work on the issue.

The extent of human trafficking has been hard to quantify. The U.S. Department of State estimates that 14,000 to 17,500 women and children are trafficked into Los Angeles each year, particularly from Latin America, Asia and Eastern Europe.

The city’s Human Trafficking and Child Prostitution task force reported that the most pressing need was to raise public awareness of the issue -- and to teach authorities, particularly the police, how to deal with it.

The federal government operates a hotline for anyone wanting to report human trafficking. The number is (888) 373-7888; multilingual operators are available.