LOS ANGELES — Federal and local law enforcement officials Wednesday discussed a multi-agency effort to stamp out a so-called pipeline in which children and young adults in foster care are lured onto streets along the Figueroa Corridor in South Los Angeles to work as prostitutes.
The 3.5-mile stretch of Figueroa Street stretching from Gage Avenue to Imperial Highway has been a hub for underage sex workers for decades. Women and girls in various states of undress can be seen walking the notorious "stroll" day and night while "johns" drive around the area looking to pick them up. Dozens of YouTube videos show the activity.
Since last year, a multi-jurisdictional task force has been focused on the epicenter of human trafficking and criminal activity, aiming to locate and assist trafficking victims, identify, arrest and convict pimps and traffickers, and disrupt buyers of sex services from minors and trafficking victims.
The effort is not aimed at prosecuting commercial sex workers, officials said.
During Wednesday's news conference, U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada said that while human trafficking is a global problem, "you don't need to look to some far-off country to find it. It exists right here ... a short distance from downtown Los Angeles and a stone's throw from USC."
Estrada added that many of the youths working the streets are "from the foster care system. These victims are as vulnerable as it gets. What we see is a human rights tragedy playing out every night."
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said the issue "is a scourge on our society. This problem reveals a gap in the safety net that should be protecting these children."
Roughly 100 young adults leave foster care in Los Angeles County each month because they are turning 21. At that point, they are frequently vulnerable to pimps, "and the next thing they know is they are being trafficked around the country," according to Bass.
When a young person in a group home turns 21, for example, "we literally pack their bags and put them on the road," Bass said.
She said the Mayor's Fund for Los Angeles, primarily a homelessness prevention program, has expanded to serve young adults aging out of the foster care system.
A lack of housing is one of the reasons young people are victimized by pimps along the Figueroa Corridor — because they have no place to go, Bass said.
The Figueroa Corridor initiative is designed to help the young women and girls who perform sex work in the area find opportunities and get them off the streets, Estrada said.
Los Angeles City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto described "appalling" street scenes witnessed during a recent night-time ride-along with Los Angeles police.
"Women and girls in various states of undress and a specific stroll for kiddies — a kiddies stroll," she said. "In the daytime, it was nearly as bad."
Federal prosecutors in Los Angeles also announced several cases Wednesday involving the sex trafficking of minors. In one, suspected pimp Christian Brandon O'Neal Scurlock, 21, of Moreno Valley, was linked to minors working as commercial sex workers in the Figueroa Corridor. In March, police camera footage on Figueroa Street showed O'Neal appearing to yell at a 13-year- old victim, take her clothes, and depart the area, leaving her completely naked on the street, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
Last month, a federal grand jury returned an indictment charging O'Neal with two counts of sex trafficking of a minor and two counts of transportation of a minor in interstate commerce to engage in prostitution and criminal sexual activity.
A record check of two girls in the case revealed that both had been reported as missing juveniles out of California. Both victims told police that O'Neal had brought them to Las Vegas to provide prostitution services as minor commercial sex workers and that they usually worked on "Fig," short for Figueroa Street. O'Neal required both minor victims to give him the money they earned from prostitution, prosecutors allege.