A 15-year-old victim of human trafficking has been rescued by authorities during an undercover operation in Pomona, police announced Wednesday.
Plainclothes officers conducted surveillance Tuesday in an area known as the East Holt Avenue Corridor, where they encountered and rescued the teenage girl, who had been reported missing out of Riverside County, according to the Pomona Police Department.
The girl received a police interview. “Appropriate resources were activated to assist her,” police said in a statement.
Pomona police use such undercover operations to allow victims of human trafficking the opportunity to speak with law enforcement and victims’ advocates in an effort to help them relocate to safe locations, the statement said.
Pomona police separately on Monday said that over the previous five days, enforcement in the East Hold Corridor resulted in 21 arrests for prostitution, pimping and loitering with the intent to commit prostitution.
Pomona police on Monday also said a man arrested on suspicion of pimping a minor in the East Holt Corridor in August 2017, John Willie Morgan, was convicted Aug. 8 of human trafficking of a minor for a commercial sex act, lewd acts upon a child and oral copulation of a person under 16; and two counts of unlawful sexual intercourse.
Anyone with information about human trafficking or prostitution in the city was asked to call Pomona police at 909-620-2085. Anonymous tips can be submitted through Crime Stoppers at 800-222-TIPS or lacrimestoppers.org.
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