THE ECONOMIST — Tracking the traffickers — Banking on a new way to disrupt crime VIDEO

Human traf­fick­ing is dev­as­tat­ing for the vic­tims but low-risk for the crim­i­nals, whose activ­i­ties are large­ly hid­den from view. To dis­rupt it, law enforce­ment is turn­ing to some unlike­ly new partners—banks. Click here to sub­scribe to The Econ­o­mist on YouTube: http://econ.trib.al/rWl91R7 Ger­man police raid homes across the coun­try as part of a move to take down an inter­na­tion­al human traf­fick­ing net­work. It’s the fastest grow­ing crime in the world but sights like this are rare. This is 21st cen­tu­ry crime — hard to track, low risk and high reward for the crim­i­nal gangs behind it. Today’s biggest crim­i­nals could be traf­fick­ing humans, drugs or weapons. The author­i­ties charged with stop­ping them have found some unlike­ly new part­ners — banks.