Los Angeles authorities on Thursday nabbed 198 people on charges connected to sex trafficking. The 3-day operation recovered 18 victims, 12 of whom are minors.
According to AP, an unlikely alliance formed between the authorities and a group called Club Organizers Against Sex Trafficking (COAST) that led to the bust of suspected sex traffickers. Members of COAST train managers and dancers of clubs on how to spot sex traffickers who come to clubs to pimp recruits.
"There was stuff they were telling us to watch for like if a girl comes in to audition and she has someone with her to speak for her, that's a red flag. If she doesn't have access to her own I.D., that's a red flag," a 24-year-old dancer told AP.
Majority of those who are arrested are facing charges of soliciting prostitution, keeping a house and supervising prostitution and drug possession. Minors who were rescued were immediately brought to protective custody, Newsweek reported.
Most the victims were African American, six of whom are women. The victims appeared to be locals and not transported from the border, authorities said. The girls were found soliciting prostitution on the streets while others were found gambling at some of the locations targeted by the task force.
Dubbed as Operation Reclaim, the operation ran from Jan. 21 to Jan. 23 in unspecified locations of the Los Angeles County. Vice investigators across the county also helped the authorities to execute the sweep operations. In addition, field operations were implemented to raise public awareness on how to spot potential sex trafficking victims and rescue them.
LAPD Det. Lina Teague told LA Times, "That's what this is all about - these minors," she said. "We are helping them reclaim and rebuild their lives."
According to the National Human Trafficking Resource Center (NHTRC), a third of trafficking victims are minors, most of whom are involved in sex trafficking. Over 5,000 cases have been reported to NHTRC since 2007-2014. In 2015 alone, 979 human trafficking cases were reported in California.
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