Human Trafficking Crackdown In Gateway Area Nets 16 Men

COMPTON, CA -- Sixteen men who solicited sex from undercover sheriff's deputies were under arrest Friday as a result of a crackdown on human trafficking in Compton, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department reported.

The 16 solicited sex from undercover deputies along Long Beach Boulevard, according to the department.

Another two men were arrested on suspicion of felony pandering as part of the sheriff's operation, which was conducted Wednesday, said Deputy Trina Schrader of the Sheriff's Information Bureau. The two men -- 30-year-old Temmy Edia of San Francisco and 26-year-old Douglas Ruff of Long Beach -- each tried to recruit an undercover female deputy to work as a prostitute and are each being held in lieu of $50,000 bail, she said.

Human trafficking detectives also rescued two females who were identified as commercially and sexually exploited children, Schrader said. One of them was returned to San Bernardino County, where she had previously been reported as missing, and the other was transferred to the Department of Children and Family Services to be cared for, she said.

"The goal of the operation was to impact the demand side of commercial sex and send a clear message that those who choose to buy women for sex are contributing to the trafficking of human beings," Schrader said.

-- City News Service, photo via Shutterstock