Mexican authorities rescue girls from traffickers

Mexican authorities say they have rescued 20 girls and arrested 1,030 people in a crackdown on sex trafficking in Ciudad Juarez. The federal Public Safety Ministry said last weekend's sweep was part of an Amber Alert program on the U.S. model to find missing persons. "As a result of these actions, 20 female minors were rescued. In addition, officers detained 500 men and 530 women on suspicion of possible links to human trafficking and sexual exploitation," the ministry said. Julio Castaneda of the Chihuahua state attorney general's told the El Paso (Texas) Times 400 of the suspects were being questioned and put in a police database. He said one person was being held as a suspect in a woman's homicide. During the raids Friday and Saturday, police blocked off a busy downtown area of the troubled city and rousted people out of bars and hotels. The Committee of Mothers of Missing Girls is seeking access to the suspects to ask them for information on their daughters. Twenty-two girls and women have been reported missing in Juarez this year, and state officials have 109 unsolved disappearances dating from 1995.