Cumberland is a city with a population of approximately 7,200, located in southeastern Maine, just north of Portland.  Cases of sex trafficking and other related crimes associated with commercial sex have been documented, including a 2014 case in which a woman was forced to be sold for sex in Cumberland and several other Maine counties, and fled when she learned her traffickers in Maine had been offered $30,000 by traffickers in New York to buy her.

Police have attempted to address the problem by arresting sex buyers.  In early 2018 State Police arrested a man at the Cumberland service plaza along the Maine Turnpike. Troopers began their investigation earlier in the week after the man had approached a female worker at the plaza for sex.  He was arrested days later after he returned to the service plaza in his tractor trailer for a prearranged meeting with what he thought was going to be a teenage girl. Instead he was met by Troopers. He was charged with patronizing prostitution with a minor and taken to the Cumberland County Jail.