In a highly religious community with low crime rates, many residents assume Utah is exempt from the insidious effects of underground crime. But even in Utah, human trafficking, one of the world’s top three most profitable hidden industries, has reared its ugly head.
DeWayne Hopkins, a 27-year-old Salt Lake City resident pleaded guilty in May to conspiracy to commit sex trafficking of children. The charge was part of the first case taken on by the newly formed Utah Human Trafficking Task Force.
The sex trafficking industry is an underground epidemic that is now considered the third-largest and fastest growing criminal industry in the world, according to the Polaris Project human trafficking cheat sheet. It is the modern slavery industry, and it rivals illegal arms and the international drug trade in profitability.
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