History Main / HumanTraffickers

Very common trade of RuthlessForeignGangsters, TheMafiya, and other Eastern European gangsters have a particular association with the trade. To a lesser extent, TheCartel and {{Evil Colonialist}}s from {{Hegemonic Empire}}s will also dabble in this illicit business. They are also a popular tactic of GreenwashedVillainy, especially of non-sexual kind. Due to RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil and SlaveryIsASpecialKindOfEvil, human traffickers of the pimp variety (as well as other varieties to an extent) are near-universally considered to be over the MoralEventHorizon. See SuperHumanTrafficking for a more fantastic variant. Contrast UndergroundRailroad, which is when people, persecuted or otherwise, are smuggled to safety, rather than being smuggled as cargo.

* ''Anime/IeNakoKoRemi'': Pollinel is a human trafficker who pays good money for children and Jérôme wanted to sell Remy to him. Thankfully Vitalis intervenes, beats the crud out of Pollinel, and rescues her.

* In ''Film/TaxiDriver'', Creator/HarveyKeitel gave us the FauxAffablyEvil Matthew "Sport" Higgins, who pimps a twelve-year-old runaway played by Creator/JodieFoster.

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* In ''Film/TaxiDriver'', Creator/HarveyKeitel gives us the FauxAffablyEvil Matthew "Sport" Higgins, who pimps a twelve-year-old runaway played by Creator/JodieFoster.

* [[''Film/Golgo13'' Golgo 13 (1973)]] features a gang of traffickers led my a mysterious man named Max Boa as the main antagonists. The client who hired Duke Togo for the job did so because his own daughter was one of Boa's many victims.

'''Senor Ferrari:''' Too bad. That's Casablanca's leading commodity. With refugees alone we can make a fortune if you work with me through the black market.

Real-world sex-traffickers don't snatch [[MissingWhiteWomanSyndrome "nice" upper-middle-class women and children]] off the street, which is too difficult and risky. Rather, they usually target [[TheRunaway homeless]], undocumented, poor people whose [[DisposableVagrant disappearances will attract much less attention]], using seduction and/or blackmail to initially trick them into bad situations. Very often, women who fall prey to this were entirely aware that they were being recruited for sex work, but expected to be treated [[UnproblematicProstitution with a modicum of decency]]. In even more cynical works, the victims of this will end up being consumed by a HighClassCannibal. In {{Period Piece}}s set in colonial eras, HollywoodNatives are often the targets of human trafficking.

Very common trade of RuthlessForeignGangsters, TheMafiya and other Eastern European gangsters have a particular association with the trade. To a lesser extent, TheCartel and {{Evil Colonialist}}s from {{Hegemonic Empire}}s will also dabble in this illicit business. They are also a popular tactic of GreenwashedVillainy, especially of non-sexual kind. Due to RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil and SlaveryIsASpecialKindOfEvil, human traffickers of the pimp variety (as well as other varieties to an extent) are near-universally considered to be over the MoralEventHorizon. See SuperHumanTrafficking for a more fantastic variant. Contrast UndergroundRailroad, which is when people, persecuted or otherwise, are smuggled to safety, rather than being smuggled as cargo.

* In ''Manga/GTOTheEarlyYears'', Shinomi almost falls victim to this when her wealthy new boyfriend turns out to be a trafficker for the yakuza. Eikichi overhears some of his goons talking about their illegal activity in a public bathroom, and gives them (and their boss, when he shows up) the [[PayEvilUntoEvil most deserved]] and violent {{swirlie}} ever.

** In ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/45984871/chapters/115749064 Waters of Lethe]]'' Aizawa is captured by traffickers who plan to auction him as a rare and valuable high profile asset. He gets rescued because Hizashi is not about to stand for that, and the other captives are freed as well. However, Aizawa struggles to recover from a Trigger-boosted blast of an amnesia quirk. Hizashi is horrified to find later that one of the parties interested in buying Aizawa was the League of Villains and their nomu makers.

* At the start of ''Fanfic/LostStormsStormysForgottenPast'', six year old Stormy is kidnapped by traffickers while out with her mother. Stormy is especially sought after because she comes from an influential family with the ability to cause storms. Stormy ends up sold to Murky, where he raises her to defeat Rainbow Brite for him.

* ''Film/TheAfflicted'': Maggie refuses to leave her house, so for money she forces her son to do odd jobs and pimps out one of her daughters.

* ''Film/EasternPromises'': The [[TheMafiya Vory y Zakone]] syndicate has been importing Russian girls into the west to be forced into prostitution. The plot is kicked off when a pregnant 14-year old girl runs away and dies in childbirth after she was raped by the chapter's boss.
* 1941 short film ''Film/ForbiddenPassage'' focuses on a gang that smuggles foreigners into the United States in the cargo hold of ships. The only problem is, if the captain of the ship thinks he's going to be caught, he drowns his passengers in the ocean to avoid detection, a real life tactic often used by traffickers.

* The villains of the second ''Film/ISpitOnYourGrave'' movie are vicious sex traffickers who kidnap and brutalize a young woman named Kate, who goes over-the-top when she [[RapeAndRevenge takes her revenge on them]].

* In ''Film/SixtyEightKill'', Liza is revealed to have been doing this on scale: selling women to her brother Dwayne, who kills them, rapes them and dissects them (yes, InThatOrder). It is not made clear where she sources the women, but she does mention that the last one was a crack whore. This is her plan for disposing of Violet: rather than just killing her, selling her to Dwayne will have the same outcome ''and'' make her some money in the process.

* ''Film/TheTransporter'' has Creator/JasonStatham as Frank Martin, who battles an Asian trafficker who is kidnapping people and bringing them to France to become slaves. And one of the trafficker's victims is ''his own daughter'', who Martin breaks his personal rules in order to help.

* In ''Darkblade Assassin'' [[note]]Previously titled ''Blade of the Destroyer''[[/note]], first book in the ''Hero of Darkness'' series [[note]]Previously titled ''The Last Bucelarii''[[/note]], the evil cult The Bloody Hand have human sex trafficking as its source of income.

** ''Origin in Death'' has an illegal cloning program which has for decades cloned people for willing buyers. These clones are used for everything from prostitutes, soldiers, spies or even disposable cannon fodder.
** ''Born In Death'' has a group who take in mothers and sell their babies to rich customers.
** ''Faithless in Death'' features the BreedingCult known as the Natural Order, run by Reverend Stanton Wilkey. The Natural Order kidnaps women and tortures them into submissive brides to be sold off to politicians and other high ranking officials.

* ''Literature/LostTime'' has ghoulish vampires in The Horde working as human traffickers for their vampiric cousins the Sanguine Collective. Blake's first recruit, sans Zea and Mara, is one of these victims, Nathan, who he saves from being enslaved after The Horde led a raid on his village in post-apocalyptic America. More of these survivors also end up working for him at his home base, since they've been taken from across the world with very few chances of returning.

* ''Literature/NadiaStafford'': The novel ''Made to be Broken'' follows a ring which has been kidnapping teenage mothers, stealing their babies and killing the mothers afterwards. The babies are then sold by an illegal adoption agency.

* ''Literature/RebuildWorld'' has a twist on this: it's mostly male PrivateMilitaryContractors who are shown being trafficked when they fall into debt, being made to fight as a CannonFodder BoxedCrook by people like Viola (who gets called a trafficker). Carol, a PredatoryProstitute, has an arrangement with Viola where Carol gets men addicted to her, and charges them more and more money until they can't pay, at which point Viola steps in to profit off their labor.

* ''Series/CharliesAngels'': Several episodes, including a large part of the cringeworthy criminal enterprise the Angels take down in Season 5's "Angel in Hiding" (a "modeling agency" used as a front to sell "failed" models -- i.e., those who refuse to give into sexual harassment -- into, among other things, human trafficking and prostitution).

** "Supply & Demand,'' the season six finale, focused on a human trafficking ring whose clientele had gotten bored with the "mundane" sex slavery and decided to graduate to holding annual events where they watch the ring's leader beat up and kill the well-to-do college kids they've abducted, while bidding on the implements and methods they use to do so.
** Season ten's arc expanded on the same concept, following a ring who used the dark web to sell victims to serial killers. Why go through all the trouble of stalking a surrogate of the girl who rejected your proposal when you can just type "brown haired, blue eyed white girl" into dark Google and have one delivered right to your in-home torture cellar?

** The Russian syndicate that Wilson Fisk has an alliance with are trafficking in girls at the docks. Matt is introduced attacking them as a container of girls are being unloaded at the docks, then tells the terrified captives to run to the cops.

* ''Series/TheMentalist'': In Season 6, Jane and the FBI come across a human trafficking ring involving women who are being kidnapped, taken in trucks to Mexico, and later sold to clients in South America. These women get selected by a fake model agency which takes their headshots (and their blood) and later drugs these women on the night they're celebrating getting the job so they can kidnap them. There are certain women who get withheld from the group and are branded with a heart-shaped symbol on their hand. [[spoiler:Turns out they've been selected to get their organs harvested.]]

** One of the things that's mentioned about vampire monarchs in the show is that they regularly have humans procured for them, and that they hire other vampires to do this on their behalf. Procuring by definition is when you obtain someone as a prostitute for a client. And considering that vampires have a history of taking humans against their will (either through [[MindRape glamouring]] or kidnapping), and that when vampires feed on humans, sex usually goes with it regardless of whether or not the human can consent. This leads to some [[RapeIsASpecialKindOfEvil icky implications.]]

** In season 5, the Authority (now under command of the human hating Sanguinistas) start a human trafficking ring where humans are brought to their headquarters and kept naked in cells until they are brought out to be fed on, raped, and then disposed of. Once again, [[spoiler:Bill]] not only is a part of this, but also sanctions it.
* ''Series/TrueDetective'' season 2 kicks off with a raid on a house where a bunch of women are working as webcam models. But in an aversion, it turns out the operation is fully legal, staffed by documented consenting adults, one of whom is the sister of the leading officer, Ani Bezzerides who staged the raid out of her own dissaproval.
* ''Series/{{Vera}}'': While investigating a murder in "The Sea Glass", discovers that the VictimOfTheWeek was involved with a human trafficking ring. The skipper of trawler would smuggle in [[TheIllegal illegal immigrants]] and drop them on a remote part of the coast, where the victim would pick them up in a van and deliver them to various locations. While Vera shuts the operation done, it turns out only to tangentially connected to why the man was murdered.
* ''Series/TheWire'': The Greeks, an international crime syndicate which first appears in season 2, engages in sex trafficking among several other illegal activities such as the drug trade. They first come to the attention of the BPD when a group of Eastern European girls are left to suffocate in a crate in the Baltimore docks.

* ''VideoGame/CallOfJuarezTheCartel'': One mission has your characters rescuing a group of American women being trafficked into Mexico. The developers caught flak for this mission, as in reality most Mexican human traffickers target poor and destitute women in the own country and traffic them across the border to the US.

* ''VideoGame/DeusExMankindDivided'' has the Dvali crime family, which deal in smuggling. One sidequest has Adam encounter a woman who seeks to use them to escape from Prague to avoid being sent to an aug ghetto.

** ''[[VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto San Andreas]]'' has a mission where CJ storms a Yakuza slave ship, rescues the Vietnamese refugees, and killing the traffickers [[OneManArmy all by his lonesome]].

* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsInTheSky'': In the second game of the trilogy, we learn the backstory of the Angel of Slaughter, that she was sold by her parents to a child trafficking ring (serving as a CynicismCatalyst) where she suffered until the BigBad's enforcers brutally killed her captors. The brutal fashion of her rescue turned her into a {{Sadist}}, and she joined her saviors to became a terrifying WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds.
* ''VideoGame/MafiaIII'': [[TheKlan The Southern Union]] deals in kidnapping black people off the streets and selling them to rich people through auction. Which [[AntiHero Lincoln]] does not take kindly to at all. After he rescues the slaves, kills the slavers and takes over this operation, [[EvenEvilHasStandards he makes it VERY clear to his underbosses that they will need to find another way to earn money than dealing in the slave trade.]]

* ''VideoGame/RedDeadRedemption2'': One of the Brother Dorkins sidequests has the player shut down a trafficking ring operating out of the Saint Denis Fence.
* The first ''VideoGame/ResidentEvilGunSurvivor'' have a diary you can collect in a prison which reveals where Umbrella got their "volunteers" for their T-Virus experiments - by recruiting youth from across the world and sending them to Sheena Island as workers, only to have them sent to the Umbrella Lab at where they're never seen again.

* ''VideoGame/TalesOfCrestoria'': the IncitingIncident of the game is [[spoiler:the reveal of a child trafficking ring ran by the protagonist Kanata's father where orphaned children are harvested for their organs and sex. Misella, Manata's childhood friend, was one of these orphans.]]
* ''VideoGame/WatchDogs'': Several story missions and side activities has Aiden fighting against these guys, including a mission where he storms one of their auctions, guns down half of the traffickers, and then calls the cops on the survivors. [[TheIrishMob The Chicago South Club]] led by [[EvilOldFolks Dermot "Lucky" Quinn]] ran an international auction of selling kidnapped American and European women to the highest bidder.

* ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13659808/ Twelve Months'', a ''Film/LoveSimon''/''Literature/TheHateUGive''/''Series/LoveVictor'' crossover fanfiction, reveals [[spoiler:this is what happened to Simon after his disappearance. He's smuggled into Bulgaria and forced to work at a brothel for the majority of the story.]]

* The ''Film/LoveSimon'', ''Literature/TheHateUGive'', and ''Series/LoveVictor'' crossover Fanfic "Twelve Months" reveals [[spoiler: This is what happened to Simon after his disappearance. He's smuggled into Bulgaria and forced to work at a brothel for the majority of the story.]]
* Trafficking for quirks is a FandomSpecificPlot in ''Franchise/MyHeroAcademia''. Examples:
** In ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/45984871/chapters/115749064 Waters of Lethe]]'' Aizawa is captured by traffickers who plan to auction him as a rare and valuable high profile asset. He gets rescued because Hizashi is not about to stand for that, and the other captives are freed as well. However, Aizawa struggles to recover from a Trigger-boosted blast of an amnesia quirk. Hizashi is horrified to find later that one of the parties interested in buying Aizawa was the League of Villains and their nomu makers.
** ''[[https://archiveofourown.org/works/18426852/chapters/43647438 Someone You Trust]]'' has Hizashi appearing to be working for people trafficking kids, including U.A. students. He is revealed to be a FakeDefector in the end but is horrified at the SadisticChoice he faced of having to either blow the chance to get the buyer targeting their students or torturing his best friend. Aizawa realizes he found ways to avoid hurting him worse and tells Hizashi that he acted as a true hero but Hizashi is traumatized by what he had to do.

Real-world sex-traffickers don't snatch [[MissingWhiteWomanSyndrome "nice" upper-middle-class women and children]] off the street, which is too difficult and risky. Rather, they usually target [[TheRunaway homeless]], undocumented, poor people whose [[DisposableVagrant disappearances will attract much less attention]], using seduction and/or blackmail to initially trick them into bad situations. Very often, women who fall prey to this were entirely aware that they were being recruited for sex work, but expected to be treated [[UnproblematicProstitution with a modicum of decency]]. In {{Period Piece}}s set in colonial eras, HollywoodNatives are often the targets of human trafficking.

** Season ten's arc expanded on the same concept, following a ring who used the dark web to sell victims to serial killers. Why go through all the trouble of stalking a surrogate of the girl who rejected your promposal when you can just type "brown haired, blue eyed white girl" into dark Google and have one delivered right to your in-home torture cellar?

** The Punisher goes after a trafficking ring in "The Slavers". Their treatment of their victims sets off Frank as he really dislikes any mistreatment of women and children in general, and [[PayEvilUntoEvil how he deals with them]] is considered one of the most violent parts of the entire MAX run.

* The ''Film/{{Taken}}'' series is about an American man who gets into a lengthy feud with a gang of [[BalkanBastard Albanian sex traffickers]], initially after they kidnap his daughter while she's on holiday in Paris. As shown in the first film, however, the Albanians are just the lower rung of a much larger organization that includes corrupt French and Swiss officials as well as an ArabOilSheikh.