A portion of Figueroa Street in South Los Angeles surrounded by nearly two dozen churches and several schools has been a breeding ground for human trafficking, prompting officials from the federal, Los Angeles city and county agencies to launch an unprecedented crackdown initiative, officials announced Wednesday.

The Figueroa Corridor Human Trafficking Initiative will target sex traffickers who often exploit girls as young as 11 years old with violence, intimation and psychological abuse along the Figueroa Corridor, a 3-and-a-half-mile stretch of Figueroa Street between Gage Avenue and Imperial Highway, U.S. Attorney Martin Estrade said while standing next to Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, Los Angeles Police Chief Dominic Choi, Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón, Los Angeles City Attorney Hydee Felstein Soto.

‘Outdoor bordello’ in South Los Angeles

The Figueroa Corridor has been plaguing the neighborhood made up of businesses and residences for years, according to Estrada.

“There are 23 churches in the area and five middle schools and elementary schools. But this area is also ground zero for human trafficking where children and women are exploited and abused each and every day,” the U.S. Attorney said.

Conditions in the Figueroa Corridor are so horrendous, Estrada said, as young girls and women are being forced into commercial sex work even during daytime. And at night, the area turns into an “outdoor bordello,” Estrada explained.

“We see underage girls walking around and next to nothing, regardless of the weather, with pimps lurking nearby in cars supervising everything,” he described.

Through the initiative, Los Angeles authorities coordinate with federal investigators, aiming to identify, arrest and prosecute human traffickers.  

Targeting foster children for sex trafficking

Among the recent arrests and indictments, two people are accused of luring a 13-year-old girl who lived in a group home before forcing her to engage in prostitution. 

Nanci Jasmin Castillo, 31, and Jonathan Gonzalez-Reyes, 38, both of Anaheim, befriended the teen by first providing her with alcohol, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said. Then they allegedly sexually assaulted her before filming and taking pictures of the attack.

The collaboration between the federal and Los Angeles agencies has also led to the conviction of 33-year-old Donavin Dwayne Brandford, who is now serving a life sentence in federal prison for recruiting teenage girls from group homes and forcing them to work as prostitutes along the Figueroa Corridor and other places. 

Trafficking victim as young as 11 years old

Mayor Bass welcomed the success of the multi-agency initiative to clean up the Figueroa Corridor, which “has been a problem for many, many years,” as she highlighted many of the victims are young girls, who were already abused and neglected by their family before being put in the foster care system.

“What is common is 12 years old is the common age that girls are brought into trafficking,” Bass said. “With the launch of this effort, I know that we will be able to bring the scourge to an end.”

She also applauded federal and local authorities for recognizing the young girls on Figueroa Street are victims. 

“ I was just extremely proud to hear the officers refer to the children as trafficked and as victims. That is a cultural change,” Bass said. “It’s taken many years to get society to view the girls as victims and not as criminals, and to understand that it is a failure of our society.”

In the last six months alone, Los Angeles Police have rescued 84 minors from the area, including one as young as 11 years old, LAPD Chief Choi said.

Naked people on the street

As those who live near the Figueroa Corridor have been complaining about prostitution in their neighborhood, one woman said her concerns have deepened as her 5-year-old daughter becomes older. 

“My child couldn’t come outside and play because somebody might be up and down the street naked,” Helen Elaine Lee said. 

Lee said, as her daughter gets older, she’s asking more questions about what she’s seeing in her neighborhood.

“She would see someone young like her niece or younger cousins. Now she’s wondering why that girl gets to walk down the street with that type of outfit on, (saying) ‘Isn’t that for the swimming pool or the beach?’”