26 Arrested, 2 Female Juveniles Rescued in #LASD Human Trafficking Operation in Compton

Los Angeles — The Los Angeles Regional Human Trafficking Taskforce, along with deputies from Compton Sheriff’s Station, conducted a human trafficking operation in the city of Compton on Wednesday, May 16, 2018.  The operation took place in the area of Long Beach Boulevard and Elm Street, Compton, between the hours of 1p.m. and 11p.m.  During the operation, detectives arrested 26 adults and rescued two female juveniles, ages 13 and 17, who they identified as commercially sexually exploited children. Both of the females were released to the care of the Department of Children and Family Services.

Three adult females were arrested for the charge of Loitering for the Purposes of Prostitution. Each of them were offered victim-centered services from Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion Services (LEADS). Two of the females were identified as victims of human trafficking and accepted ongoing services.

Seventeen of those arrested were male adults who solicited undercover Sheriff’s deputies for various sex acts. One male was arrested for Indecent Exposure and soliciting, after he exposed himself to an undercover Sheriff’s deputy during the course of propositioning her for a sex act. Those males were transported and booked at the Century Regional Detention Facility. A 17 year old male juvenile was detained on a felony charge of Pandering after he attempted to recruit an undercover Sheriff’s deputy to work for him as a commercial sex worker.

Jahmoni Keys, an 18 year old male from Compton, was arrested on a felony charges of False Impersonation of Another as well as Resisting Arrest and violating the terms of his probation.

The operation included task force partners from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (F.B.I.), the District Attorney’s Office (LADA), the California Highway Patrol (CHP), Los Angeles Unified School Police (LAUSD), State Parole, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) the Los Angeles County Probation Department, Saving Innocence, and the Department of Children and Family Services.

Anyone with information about this incident is encouraged to contact the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Human Trafficking Bureau at (323) 526-5156. If you prefer to provide information anonymously, you may call “Crime Stoppers” by dialing (800) 222-TIPS (8477), use your smartphone by downloading the “P3 Tips” Mobile APP on Google play or the Apple App Store or by using the website http://lacrimestoppers.org.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff Department’s Human Trafficking Bureau houses the LA Regional Human Trafficking Task Force, the nation’s largest co-located human trafficking task force.  The Task Force is a collaboration of federal, state, county and local law enforcement, social service agency and non-government and community-based organizations investigating and serving the needs of commercially exploited adults and minors victimized for the purpose of sex and labor.

The LA Regional Human Trafficking Task Force brings together systems and disciplines to address the victim’s needs through a victim centered, trauma informed approach.  The task force employs a regionalized strategy that crosses jurisdictional boundaries to identify and rescue victims while aggressively pursuing traffickers and buyers.

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