Authorities in Los Angeles announced Tuesday the results of a statewide crackdown on human trafficking that resulted in the arrests of more than 600 suspects and the rescue of 170 victims, predominantly in the sex trade.
The weeklong “Operation Reclaim and Rebuild” campaign was part of a yearly effort by the Los Angeles Regional Human Trafficking Task Force and 80 local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies.
Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna laid out the exact numbers at a news conference, later posted on X.
A total of 611 criminal arrests were made and 156 adults rescued as part of the operations, Luna told reporters. In addition, 14 children were rescued from sex trafficking. Officials said 71 suspected traffickers were arrested, and an additional 328 sex buyers were arrested.
“This is a multibillion-dollar industry,” Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman said. “It is nothing less than modern slavery.”
According to the Los Angeles Times’ reporting of the announcement:
Operations focused on corridors known for prostitution, and also involved parole and probation checks on individuals previously arrested for similar crimes, authorities said. In one case, Sheriff Robert Luna said, a citizen complaint about a possible residential brothel led to the discovery of multiple residential brothels in Walnut and the arrest of six suspected traffickers. “California will not be a refuge to predators,” Luna said.
The arrests and the annual enforcement campaign, Luna said, are meant to send a message to traffickers in the area: “We’re coming after you. Don’t do this. You’re going to be arrested, and you’re going to be held accountable.”
This year’s operation was conducted the last week of January, but law enforcement officials stressed enforcement was ongoing.
“This is 365,” Hochman said. “It did not end in January. We’re going to continue to prosecute these cases the entire year.”
The latest numbers were higher than in previous operations. A similar campaign last year yielded 547 arrests and the year before that 539 were arrested.
According to Luna, the increase in arrests over last year is due to the fact that the task force gets “better” and “more knowledgeable” in mining accumulated arrest materials every year.
In Los Angeles County, the operation resulted in 192 arrests, including multiple arrests along Figueroa Street, a known corridor for prostitution and trafficking, LAPD Deputy Chief Alan Hamilton said.
“We have traffickers that are putting barely teenage girls out there on the streets of Los Angeles to be victimized,” he said, adding those rescued will be connected to social services to get help.
Hamilton said that several of the suspected traffickers traveled to L.A. from Washington, Virginia, Idaho, and Mississippi to bring men, women, and children “for a quick, dirty buck on the streets of Los Angeles.”
A brothel located in a house in Walnut, California — a suburb of 30,000 some 25 miles east of downtown L.A. — netted hundreds of arrests alone, according to the San Gabriel Valley Tribune.
Law enforcement officials said pimps and predators look for young, vulnerable people in order to exploit them.
“They’re looking for runaways,” Hochman said. “They are looking for people who are just out of the foster system, they’re luring people using the tools of the internet and social media.”
Hochman also called the arrest of 328 customers a “stunning” number.
“If there wasn’t a demand of people willing to pay good, cold, hard cash to have sex with these young girls and boys, the supply would run out,” Hochman said.
The DA said he was interested in creating a registry website, similar to the sex-offender program in the state, that would publish details of customers paying for sex — employing “embarrassment” to “stop them and others from engaging” in the conduct.
Crime writer Lowell Cauffiel is the best-selling author of ten books, including his first true crime novel Masquerade: A True Story Seduction, Compulsion and Murder, which unfolds the deadly double life of a prominent Detroit psychologist to enable his obsession with teenage street prostitute. See lowellcauffiel.com for more.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.