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Biggest Sex Trafficking Busts
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Biggest Sex Trafficking Busts

By Gary C. King
Edited by Kevin P. Allen

Sex trafficking is a form of modern slavery in which mostly girls and young women, but also boys and young men, are held in captivity and forced into various forms of sexual exploitation for the financial gain of the criminals holding them in bondage. The victims are sometimes coerced into the sex trade but fraud, such as the promise of employment in a foreign land, is also often used. Traffickers frequently kidnap their victims, or parents and other relatives may sell the victims to traffickers so they can be made slaves to prostitution or compelled to work in massage parlors that offer sexual acts. Frequently, they're held against their will under the threat of violent acts that include beatings, rape and even death. Eighty percent of the victims are women, half of whom are underage children, according to Home of Hope--Texas, an organization that provides rehabilitation and training to sex trafficking victims.

Sex trafficking is a worldwide problem, and it generates billions of dollars for those who shamelessly take advantage of their innocent victims. According to the FBI, human trafficking has become one of the largest, if not the largest, criminal enterprises in the world today.

Following are some of the biggest sex trafficking busts in recent history.

Photo by David McNew/Getty Images

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