Sex trafficking ring broken
Tulare County girls victims
Several young women, including teenagers, are back home with their families after law enforcement officers in Tulare and Los Angeles counties busted a sex trafficking ring, it was announced Thursday.
Three people have been charged with pimping eight teens and five adults for commercial sex work in a ring that operated in California, Nevada and Texas, authorities said Thursday.
The teens, between 15 and 17, were lured into the commercial sex operation that solicited customers through postings on the internet, Los Angeles County Sheriff Jim Mcdonnell said. At least five of the teenagers are from Tulare County.
Tulare County Sheriff Mike Boudreaux was part of a press conference at the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department headquarters announcing the arrests and the return of the women to their families.
Quinton Brown, 30, Gerald Lavell Turner, 32, and Mia Mcneil, 32, face a total of 54 charges that include sex trafficking, pimping and identity theft, authorities said. It wasn’t immediately clear if they had attorneys who could comment on the allegations. Brown also faces charges of sexual intercourse with girls under age.
All three suspects have prior records.
Brown, who is from Highland, and Turner, who is from Fresno, are being held in the Tulare County Jail. An arrest warrant has been issued for Mcneil.
Mcdonnell, who was also joined by California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, said the trio “sought to exploit children while defrauding their victims and other unsuspecting people.”
Investigators launched a probe in December after Los Angeles County deputies were called to an apartment in West Hollywood to follow up on a missing person report filed in Tulare County, Mcdonnell said.
Sheriff Boudreaux said the girl’s family had alerted them that their daughter had gone missing. That led officers to West Hollywood where they found the missing teenage girl and two other adults in the apartment and later learned the apartment was being used as part of the human trafficking that included 13 female victims, including the eight teens, some as young as 15 years old.
“This is shocking to the senses,” said Boudreaux during the Thursday morning news conference. “It is shocking to me, my staff and I hope to those hearing this story,” he added.
He told of one of the victims he has visited with and said with the help of counselors, “She’s not the same person. She’s healthy, she looks healthy and the family is reunited.” He said many of the girls had been hooked on drugs.
Human trafficking has become “one of the fastest-growing criminal enterprises worldwide,” Becerra said and Boudreaux stressed the importance for parents to be aware of who their children are speaking with via social media.
Authorities say Mcneil used stolen identities to rent apartments across California that were used as brothels and purchased luxury cars that were used to transport the victims throughout California and to Las Vegas, Nevada and Texas.
Boudreaux praised the efforts of the different agencies involved in the case.
“To Californians, be proud of the law enforcement serving the citizens of this state because today is a win for the good guys,” he said. “Sexually exploiting young people for financial gain is a crime against humanity. We will continue our vigilance to aggressively seek out those suspects who endanger our children and who seek to use human beings for their criminal gain.”
What detectives uncovered with these young victims is upsetting
to law enforcement and arguably throughout California but particularly back in the Central Valley where most of the victims reside.
“To the victims and their families, our hearts go out to you,” Boudreaux said in a statement. “To the people who believe they will hide in the world of cyber or quietly remain in the shadows waiting to exploit our children, we will get you. And to the citizens of Tulare County, the Office of the Sheriff will continue to aggressively seek out predators to make our communities safe.”
Officials said there could be more victims and more arrests.