We hear stories and news reports from around the country about this insidious growing crime, but it's happening in Tri-Cities too.

Sex trafficking, according to law enforcement officials and experts, is simply modern-day slavery, usually involving forced prostitution.

The Tri-Cities Soroptimist Club will present a local documentary entitled, "Here? Sex-Trafficking in our Community,"   April 29th at Columbia Basin College in the Byron Gjerde Center.  According to the Soroptimist club, sex trafficking is a 32 billion dollar industry that involves as many as 35 million victims worldwide.

In the United State alone, some 100,000 minors are forced into such behavior, and their average age is 13!

We saw a big eye-opening example of that here in Tri-Cities in July, 2013, when a 19-year-old man was arrested and jailed for allegedly attempting to lure young teen girls into a Seattle-based prostitution ring.  Deepark Samra reportedly had a teen female accomplice who helped try to lure the young women into the ring.

Assault charges were added to his crimes when Kennewick police discovered his female accomplice beat up a young girl who refused their advances.

The documentary will be shown starting at 7pm at CBC on April 29th.  The public is invited to attend to learn more about this growing crime, as well as what signs to look for and how to help prevent it.

For more details, call 509-586-5117.

 

 

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