A two-day anti-human trafficking operation resulted in hundreds of arrests across the state, including 38 in San Diego County, authorities announced Tuesday.

The third annual effort, dubbed “Operation Reclaim and Rebuild,” occurred last week in San Diego, Los Angeles and other counties. Fake ads were posted online offering sex for money, and when the buyers showed up to make the transactions they were met by law enforcement.

Suspects were booked into jail until they could post bail.

“The main goal of the operation was to disrupt the demand for vulnerable victims by targeting the demand side. In other words, men who buy human beings for sex as products,” said Chief Deputy District Attorney Summer Stephan, who leads a multi-agency task force on human trafficking in San Diego County.


Stephan said investigators also sought to identify and rescue victims of sexual slavery, and to provide them with housing and other services.

More than 160 personnel from 18 law enforcement agencies, including the San Diego Police Department, county Sheriff’s Department and FBI, participated in the operation in San Diego County.

“Law enforcement across Southern California joined together to send a clear message: We are united on this issue, and this crime will not be tolerated,” Stephan said at a news conference at the downtown San Diego Hall of Justice.

Throughout California, 28 minors who had been sexually exploited were recovered, as well as 27 adult female victims, 142 men were arrested and accused of solicitation, and 238 women were contacted for prostitution.


Thirty-six men were arrested for pimping.

In San Diego, 38 people were arrested including 22 men who have since been charged with solicitation for prostitution. Eight female suspects — all adult women — were arrested on suspicion of prostitution and offered help to get out of what Stephan referred to as an “unhealthy lifestyle.”

One man was arrested in San Diego for human trafficking, and six were arrested for other reasons, including drug and weapon-related offenses.

Two victims were rescued in San Diego County, including a 16-year-old girl.


“This operation sends a clear message, a clear warning to those who buy human beings for sex in San Diego County,” said Stephan, who announced last week that she plans to run for district attorney in 2018.

“If you think you’re not being watched, you are,” Stephan said. “If you think you’re operating in the shadows, you’re not. If you think you won’t be caught and held accountable for your role in promoting sex trafficking, think again.”

Several other local authorities attended Tuesday’s news conference, including San Diego Police Chief Shelley Zimmerman and San Diego FBI Special Agent in Charge Eric Birnbaum.

Newly elected San Diego City Attorney Mara Elliott said her office has played a role over the past 15 years in reducing the supply and demand for human trafficking and sexual exploitation.


“Pretending this issue doesn’t exist only makes us more complicit in it,” Elliott said.

The City Attorney’s Office coordinates a prostitution impact panel, which Elliott said forces sex buyers “to confront the myth that sex work is a victimless crime.” In 15 years, more than 1,400 former buyers have completed the program, 97 percent of whom did not re-offend.

As part of last week’s effort, nine operations were conducted over two days in San Diego County, Assistant Sheriff Mike Barnett said. He said surveys of the “johns” who were arrested showed they represented all racial and ethnic groups in the county, most were married and had children at home, and their occupations ranged from being unemployed to being highly compensated professionals.

“Most did not know that the prostitutes were not working as such by their own choice,” Barnett said. “Most did not know that the prostitutes were being controlled by their pimps or traffickers. Most did not know the prostitutes started being trafficked in their teens, and finally most did not know that the money paid to the prostitutes went straight to their pimps.”


Soliciting prostitution in California is a misdemeanor crime that carries a punishment of up to six months in jail and a fine.

Traffickers can face up to 10 years in prison.

dana.littlefield@sduniontribune.com


Twitter: @danalittlefield