Riverside County law enforcement made 64 arrests over the course of four days during an anti-human trafficking operation, authorities announced Tuesday.
The arrests were part of Operation Reclaim and Rebuild, an annual effort by federal, state and local law enforcement agencies to combat sexual slavery and human trafficking in California. The statewide operation seeks to rescue victims and apprehend their captors, according to a Riverside County Sheriff’s Department news release.
Last year, 518 people were arrested while 87 victims, including 11 children, were recovered during the effort.
This year’s operation in Riverside County spanned four consecutive days, concluding on Jan. 28, according to a Sheriff’s Department news release. It involved the county’s Anti-Human Trafficking Task Force along with the Palm Desert, La Quinta, Lake Elsinore and Temecula special enforcement teams, and the Riverside and Murrieta police departments.
The county’s operation primarily targeted online prostitution.
Anti-human trafficking task force members had placed decoy advertisements in the classified sections of websites commonly used to solicit prostitution. The task force responded to those who replied to the ads and then made the arrests when the subjects showed up at the predetermined meeting location, according to the release.
At the same time, task force members separately negotiated agreed upon acts of prostitution based on other online regional escort advertisements. In those instances, women were directed to meet the undercover task force members posing as customers. They were then interviewed, and those who were not found to be human trafficking victims were also arrested, authorities explained.
Overall, 64 people were arrested, almost all of them on suspicion of soliciting prostitution. Two women believed to be victims of sex trafficking were rescued, officials said.
The arrestees were booked and released upon a written promise to show up to their court appearances, according to the Sheriff’s Department.
Authorities arrested Issac Mciver, 26, of Lakewood (Not Pictured) on suspicion of soliciting a minor for lewd purposes and Corey Wiggins, 20, of Moreno Valley on suspicion of supervising/aiding a person to commit prostitution.
The following were arrested during the operation on suspicion of soliciting prostitution:
- Audon Aguilera-Cortez, 26, of Riverside (Not Pictured)
- Ian Alexander, 51, of Long Beach
- Gabriel Alvarez, 28, of Coachella
- Ethan Andrews, 29, of Menifee
- Daniel Arriaga-Diaz, 27, of Ontario (Not Pictured)
- Douglas Ayala, 43, of Twentynine Palms
- Matthew Babb, 26, of Bishop (Not Pictured)
- Monte Bertoldo, 53, of Palm Springs
- Kivanc Bilgin, 36, of Murrieta
- Scott Borel, 42, of Murrieta
- Anousack Bounyadeth, 47, of Menifee
- Rutilio Brito, 33, of La Quinta
- Eduardo Calderon, 32, of Los Angeles
- Sergio Castaneda, 37, of San Bernardino
- Wilson Chen, 33, of Lake Elsinore
- Dak Chim, 37, of Rosemead
- Rodolfo Cortez, 37, of Riverside
- Anthony Dagnenica, 52, of Menifee
- Andrew Diaz, 23, of Lake Elsinore
- Michael Eder, 45, of Murrieta
- Margarito Escobar-Orozco, 34, of Lake Elsinore
- Bryan Gaboury, 45, of Chino
- Armando Gatewood, 32, of Murrieta
- Anthony Gonzales, 43, of Chino
- John Hald, 50, of Hesperia
- Donovan Heard, 42, of Huntington Park (Not Pictured)
- Stefan Hyatt, 34, of Apple Valley
- Robert Johnson, 72, of Winchester
- Nathan Keys, 23, of Bellflower (Not Pictured)
- Gari Leal-Vallejo, 35, of Menifee
- Alberto Leon-Lopez, 26, of Vista
- Florencio Lopez, 50, of Thermal
- Randall Lopez, 65, of Azusa
- Roberto Lopez, 47, of Bermuda Dunes
- Rodrigo Macias-Leal, 21, of Cathedral City
- Quincey Morton, 41, of Los Angeles
- Hai Nguyen, 50, of Mission Viejo
- Wesley Orta-Marcano, 26, of Menifee
- Daniel Martin, 42, of Murrieta
- Ricardo Pachuca, 23, of Indio
- Justin Parish, 46, of Murrieta
- Juan Poblano-Martinez, 48, of Thermal
- Goldsborough Purnell, 62, of Palm Springs
- Eliuth Ramirez, 22, of Thermal
- Enrique Ramirez, 23, of Thermal
- Travis Risner, 41, of Murrieta
- Lenard Rodriguez, 25, of Harbor City
- Guadalupe Rosales, 44, of Perris
- Adam Sambrano, 39, of Indio
- Francisco Scott, 38, of Coachella
- Marius Simmons, 47, of Temecula
- Anthony Smith, 26, of Palm Desert
- Kyle Smith, 26, of Palm Desert
- William Spicknall, 37, of Palm Desert
- Thomas Stanford, 42, of Indio
- Christopher Stiles, 26, of Moreno Valley
- Christopher Teague, 23, of Aguanga
- Geoffrey Torres, 53, of Lake Elsinore
- Mason Tubiolo, 27, of Temecula
- Manuel Vega, 44, of Thermal
- Gilbert Vita, 27, of La Habra (Not Pictured)
- Ivory Woodly, 21, of Lynwood (Not Pictured)
Sheriff’s officials say women and children comprise about 95% of sex trafficking victims. And an estimated one out of every six endangered runaways are likely victims of sex trafficking, according to the National Center for Missing and Exploiting Children.
“Those victimized by commercial sexual exploitation frequently have long histories of emotional, physical, and/or sexual abuse or trauma in their backgrounds,” the release read. “Sex trafficking victims are often subjected not only to severe forms of emotional, physical, and sexual abuse at the hands of their trafficker but are also frequently physically and sexually assaulted by those that solicit them for prostitution.”
Full results from the statewide operation were not immediately released, though in past years that announcement has typically come in early February.