More than 400 people were arrested in a three-day statewide sweep aimed at stopping sexual slavery and human trafficking of young women and girls, law enforcement authorities in Los Angeles and other jurisdictions announced Tuesday.
“Operation Reclaim and Rebuild” also resulted in the recovery of 28 sexually exploited children and 27 women, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
According to Nicole Nishida of the sheriff’s department, the operation included personnel from 30 federal, state and local agencies and task forces throughout the state.
Nishida said a total of 474 arrests were made statewide during the operation. Law enforcement officials said the arrests included 142 male suspects suspected of solicitation, 238 on suspicion of prostitution and 36 male suspects on suspicion of pimping.
Some suspects were arrested on various other offenses, including outstanding warrants, Nishida said.
Authorities said there were three goals of the operation:
— disrupting the demand for the vulnerable victims by targeting their buyers;
— identifying and arresting their captors and seeking successful prosecutions against them; and
— identifying and recovering victims of sexual slavery and human trafficking and providing them with needed services.
Although this was the third annual “Operation Reclaim and Rebuild,” this is the first one which incorporated law enforcement from throughout the state.
As part of the operation focused on buyers who shop for sex online, fake ads were posted online offering sex for money. When the men responding to the ad showed up at a hotel, they were arrested, authorities said.
–City News Service