Prosecutors have charged 369 people with crimes related to child sex trafficking in Colorado in the past five years. Last October, in one high-profile bust, the FBI arrested over 100 people and recovered 84 young victims from all over the country -- 17 of those victims came from Colorado, including a three-month-old and a five-year-old. A family friend had offered the two children to an undercover agent; $600 in exchange for sex.
Leigh Paterson has been covering this issue for Rocky Mountain PBS on the podcast "Traded And Trafficked." On Colorado Matters, she answers three key questions: Who are the victims? Why do the traffickers do it? Is enough being done to stop these crimes? Human trafficking is lucrative. Pimps in Denver reported making around $31,000 per week according to an Urban Institute for a 2014 report.
