When Americans think of human trafficking, we tend to visualize far-off lands. Little girls are prostituted in Southeast Asia. Women are coerced into forced labor in Eastern Europe.

But while this problem is massive and global - Interpol calls it the world's third-largest criminal enterprise - its tentacles reach right into the five boroughs. Next week, we'll be reminded of this local link when Jamaica resident Jamaal Watkins appears in a Queens courthouse on a 95-count indictment stemming from his alleged involvement in luring a 14-year-old girl from an out-of-state group home to New York. Authorities charge that Watkins then forced the girl to have sex with 500 men over two months.

Across the U.S., as many as 300,000 children may be sexually exploited each year, according to the federal government. Of this sample, it is estimated that approximately 10% have been trafficked across our national borders.

A recent study funded by the National Institute of Justice estimated that there are nearly 4,000 child sex trafficking victims in New York City alone - and that's a conservative estimate.

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