The Sheriff's Office of Cook County in Illinois said Monday that their sex trafficking sting operations resulted in the arrest of 570 men and women who tried to hire the services of sex trade workers and the rescue of 68 victims of human trafficking. The operations were mounted across 17 states in observance of the National Day of Johns.

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Most of these sex trade workers list themselves on websites such as Backpage.com and Craigslist. The catch this year is higher compared to 2014 when the FBI saved 25 child prostitutes and filed criminal charges versus 45 pimps after the 2014 Super Bowl in New Jersey, reports the LA Times.

By detaining and sending to prison pimps and rescuing sex trade workers, the broad national movement sends a strong message to future johns that their trade has victims and sex trafficking destroys lives, said Cook County Sheriff Thomas Dar.

He noted that the Super Bowl has emerged as a prominent haven for sex trafficking, especially missing girls from New York or New Jersey who were held by trafficking rings that travel yearly to New Jersey.

This year's sting covered 17 days from January 15 to February 1, the end of Super Bowl.

Dart said the bulk of the solicitation came from Backpage.com. Besides the arrest of the 570 for soliciting sex, the police also arrested 23 people suspected of being involved in sex trafficking. Of the 68 rescued, 14 were minors. Some of the rescued women said they taken to Arizona to work as sex trade workers.

Police departments that joined in the sex sting operations are from Minneapolis and St. Paul.

Tagssuper bowl, prostitution, sex trade workers, National Day of Johns