This past week there was breaking news out of Texas that the CEO of Backpage.com was arrested for pimping.

So what is the story?

Backpage.com and it's affiliates, EvilEmpire.com and BigCity.com, are websites that advertise for "escort" services; most of which are actually trafficked women and children being forced into sex work. Backpage.com previously gave the illusion that they were working to combat the advertisements for this criminal empire, but hindsight 20/20, that obviously wasn't the whole truth. Just last year major credit card companies boycotted the website to avoid their credit cards being used to purchase trafficked victims.

After a multi-year investigation it was found that "internal business records obtained through a search warrant show that 99 percent [Backpage's] revenue came from its adult services section" according to ABCNews. So when CEO Carl Ferrer landed in Texas after a flight back from Amsterdam, official arrested him for human trafficking. He is being charged with felony pimping a minor, pimping, conspiracy to commit pimping and money-laundering. He has since been transported to California and there are warrants out for the arrest of Ferrer's two associates, Michael Lacey, 68, and James Larkin, 67.

The good news is that now Ferrer is behind bars without bail. The site he created could be used by any average Joe looking to purchase a victim, hopefully this arrest will help bring down the site. The unfortunate part is that even though officials are tackling this accessible portal for purchasing, the demand is not decreasing. Backpage.com made purchasing a human easy, the arrest may bring barriers, but where there is a will, there is a way. This win for the abolitionist community brings hope that society is moving towards a slave free world. Unfortunately the key to actually achieving this goal will be to decease the demand.

To learn more about human trafficking in this area, check out The Samaritan Women in Baltimore.