A US federal report has revealed that sex trafficking in San Diego enjoys a vast underground industry worth more than $800 million every year, eight times higher than a previous estimation.
The report published by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) made the announcement on Tuesday, adding that, in San Diego County, between 3,000 and 8,000 victims enter the clutches of the sex-trafficking industry every year, shocking researchers and law enforcement officers in the region.
"While a fifth of those come from other countries, many across the nearby border from Mexico, 80 percent enter the industry from within the US and that the average age to begin selling sex is 15, and 50% of women arrested for prostitution have at some point been forced into it," the report said.
The federal report defines sex trafficking as a trade in which someone has been forced, coerced or tricked into prostitution.
The trade involves some 110 gangs just in San Diego County, dubbed one of 13 hotspots for child sex trafficking in the US.
“This is a beautiful town with an ugly truth,” said Summer Stephan, the San Diego County’s district attorney.
“The study found the underground industry was shifting from drug trafficking to sex trafficking because of lower risk of detection,” she added.
“In the last five to seven years, authorities in San Diego have changed the way they deal with the flourishing sex trade… Educators, health and child welfare workers, police, prosecutors and victims’ advocates began collaborating to help girls and women avoid or escape exploitation,” Stephan added.
The report also revealed that pimps were typically earning around $670,000 a year.
The US Department of Justice has expressed readiness to use the report as part of a new national framework, upon which they can build a more accurate picture of the immoral trade across the US and develop new strategies to tackle it.