![\"Images](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1783151199_912_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\nFederal 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. <\/p>\n
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 \u201ctargeting human trafficking in the Figueroa corridor, where girls as young as 14 are being sold for sex.\u201d<\/p>\n
The case involved \u201chigh school freshmen too young to drive but who were forced into cars to have sex with strangers for money,\u201d Essayli told reporters at a news conference.<\/p>\n
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 \u201cthe Blade,\u201d between approximately Slauson Avenue and Century Boulevard.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
The arrests marked authorities\u2019 latest attempt to disrupt the Hoovers\u2019 operations in the area after a similar effort in August that led to the charging of 11 suspected gang members and associates.<\/p>\n
In all, authorities said, they have charged 18 defendants with 65 criminal counts as part of \u201cOperation Broken Blade,\u201d including charges of sex trafficking, drug dealing and violating the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, or RICO.<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for the U.S. attorney\u2019s office in L.A. said an arrest was also made Monday tied to the case. <\/p>\n
Investigators identified more than 50 victims, according to Essayli. Some were branded with tattoos of a defendant\u2019s nickname, he said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Images taken from federal court filings show alleged members of the Hoovers gang wielding firearms. <\/p>\n
(U.S. District Court)<\/p>\n
Police officials and advocates for trafficking victims say the Hoovers gang, which formed in the 1970s, has long held a stranglehold along Figueroa.<\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n
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. \u201cJankie\u201d and \u201cHesopayed,\u201d bit an 18-year-old victim in the cheek \u201cdown to the cartilage,\u201d Essayli said.<\/p>\n
Lockett, who authorities said is from Anaheim, allegedly gave the girl a Percocet pill and sent her to a hospital to get stitches. <\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Ahir allegedly admitted to investigators that up to 90% of rooms he rented were used for trafficking purposes, saying he\u2019d 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\u2019s owners. <\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
They argue that Figueroa and other well-known prostitution tracks \u2014 such as Western Avenue in South L.A. and Sepulveda Boulevard in the San Fernando Valley \u2014 are home to a mix of people being forced or coerced into the high-risk work and some who are there by choice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Federal and local law enforcement agencies arrested nine people Wednesday as part of what officials described as the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":95981,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[237,52693,1436,69600,155278,2303,48,52,51,98136,47,50,49,63,2324,346,1459,155698,26468,76156,5783],"class_list":["post-385908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-arrest","tag-associate","tag-case","tag-federal-indictment","tag-figueroa-corridor","tag-l-a","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-local-law-enforcement-agency","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-los-angeles-times","tag-member","tag-office","tag-part","tag-people-wednesday","tag-sex-trafficking","tag-takedown","tag-u-s-attorney"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385908","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=385908"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/385908\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95981"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=385908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=385908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=385908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}