Federal and local law enforcement agencies arrested nine people Wednesday as part of what officials described as the latest effort to dismantle sex trafficking operations in the Figueroa corridor of South Los Angeles.
The operation, which unfolded early Wednesday, involved Homeland Security Investigations and the Los Angeles Police Department, according to First Assistant U.S. Atty. Bill Essayli, who said they were “targeting human trafficking in the Figueroa corridor, where girls as young as 14 are being sold for sex.”
The case involved “high school freshmen too young to drive but who were forced into cars to have sex with strangers for money,” Essayli told reporters at a news conference.
A federal indictment unsealed Wednesday said the accused were members and associates of the Hoover Criminals gang, which authorities say largely controls sex trafficking and prostitution along a 3.5-mile stretch of Figueroa Street known as “the Blade,” between approximately Slauson Avenue and Century Boulevard.
LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell said the department was monitoring other well-known hubs for sex work in the city in the event that traffickers simply relocate their operations elsewhere.
The arrests marked authorities’ latest attempt to disrupt the Hoovers’ operations in the area after a similar effort in August that led to the charging of 11 suspected gang members and associates.
In all, authorities said, they have charged 18 defendants with 65 criminal counts as part of “Operation Broken Blade,” including charges of sex trafficking, drug dealing and violating the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, or RICO.
A spokesperson for the U.S. attorney’s office in L.A. said an arrest was also made Monday tied to the case.
Investigators identified more than 50 victims, according to Essayli. Some were branded with tattoos of a defendant’s nickname, he said.
Images taken from federal court filings show alleged members of the Hoovers gang wielding firearms.
(U.S. District Court)
Police officials and advocates for trafficking victims say the Hoovers gang, which formed in the 1970s, has long held a stranglehold along Figueroa.
The gang members and associates allegedly focused on recruiting vulnerable minor girls and young women, many of whom came from broken homes or had fallen through the foster care system, Essayli said Wednesday.
Victims were allegedly forced to turn over proceeds from commercial sex dates to a pimp, who occasionally meted out discipline. One trafficking suspect, identified in court filings as Cameron Lockett, 23, a.k.a. “Jankie” and “Hesopayed,” bit an 18-year-old victim in the cheek “down to the cartilage,” Essayli said.
Lockett, who authorities said is from Anaheim, allegedly gave the girl a Percocet pill and sent her to a hospital to get stitches.
Another alleged pimp beat a woman with a Rolex watch that was wrapped around his hand, according to Essayli. One victim was reportedly forced into performing sex acts on the same day she was forced to have an abortion, the federal prosecutor said.
Some victim advocates say human trafficking along Figueroa has escalated since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and the rollback of anti-loitering laws.
According to the indictment made public this week, the Hoovers had strongholds over specific hotels and motels in their territory, including the Stadium Inn & Spas. Authorities on Wednesday arrested Mukeshkumar Rambhai Ahir, 45, the manager of the Stadium Inn & Spas.
Ahir allegedly admitted to investigators that up to 90% of rooms he rented were used for trafficking purposes, saying he’d rent to anyone who had the ability to pay. Authorities said Ahir kept half of the proceeds from every transaction, with some of the money eventually finding its way into the bank accounts of the motel’s owners.
The arrests have heightened anxiety among some sex work and public health advocates who fear that crackdowns in the buildup to the 2028 Olympic Games will further endanger an already vulnerable population.
These advocates accuse law enforcement and politicians of overstating the human trafficking problem on Figueroa in order to justify more police actions and the passage of harsher laws.
They argue that Figueroa and other well-known prostitution tracks — such as Western Avenue in South L.A. and Sepulveda Boulevard in the San Fernando Valley — are home to a mix of people being forced or coerced into the high-risk work and some who are there by choice.