A huge multi-agency law enforcement operation in Sonoma County last week that targeted suspected prostitutes, pimps and their would-be clientele is part of a growing trend of collaboration and cross-pollination in the field of commercial sex and human trafficking enforcement, police said.
About 100 law enforcement officers from 23 agencies as far away as Livermore and San Jose, including a dozen FBI personnel, participated in a series of stings last Friday, organized by local police and sheriff's personnel at motels in Santa Rosa, Petaluma and Rohnert Park, authorities said.
The effort, planned over six weeks, was driven in part by a desire to curb what authorities say is a burgeoning trade in sex around the area since the opening last fall of the Graton Resort and Casino in Rohnert Park, authorities said.
There are no specific data to prove a linkage between the casino and a rise in activity, but local authorities say they and their counterparts in the Bay Area, as well as members of the FBI, have seen increasing references in online advertising suggesting prostitutes are coming to the area to take advantage of heavy casino traffic. Human intelligence gathered locally and in the Bay Area similarly supports the trend, police said.
"We really don't suspect that they (the casino) are condoning or facilitating this in any way," Santa Rosa Police Sgt. Terry Anderson said. "They just happen to be an entertainment venue, you know. They're not responsible for people's actions."
Undercover investigators have turned for enforcement to the same online websites increasingly used by participants in the sex trade to advertise and arrange dates.
Last week's stings included participation by a half-dozen social agencies and nonprofits who provided outreach and services to sex providers interested in getting out of prostitution.
There were free HIV tests and counseling provided both to prostitutes and customers who wanted them, police said. About seven people sought the tests, Face2Face spokeswoman Meghan Murphy said. In addition, county workers were on-hand to provide information about ongoing support now available under state law to teens who have aged out of foster care but still can obtain financial assistance up to age 21, police said.
The event also served as a kind of investigative training ground, where those with experience in the under-cover, online exchanges used to lure suspects to "trysts" that actually end in arrest brought their expertise to the table, local authorities said.
Those who wanted to learn how different agencies function in the evolving arena of commercial sex enforcement picked up plenty of tips in a field where partnerships are increasingly common and necessary, they said.
"There is a lot of networking," generally in this area of law enforcement, Santa Rosa Police Sgt. Terry Anderson said. "There is a lot of sharing ideas. There's a lot of evaluation of, How can we do this better?"
"The whole goal," said Santa Rosa Police Detective Chris Mahurin, "was just to kind of not so much standardize the way we're doing things but kind of get everybody up to speed on the way these investigations work."
It was also, to some extent, practice for what Mahurin said were expected to be regional enforcement operations in 2016, when Santa Clara and the San Francisco 49ers host the Super Bowl.
The FBI, through its continuing Innocence Lost National Initiative, reported rescuing 16 minors as young as 13 from sexually exploitive situations during the 2014 Super Bowl in New Jersey. More than 45 suspected pimps and others also were arrested, according to the FBI.
Members of the Innocence Lost Work Group in Oakland were among those who helped organize and recruit participants for the April 4 Sonoma County stings, Anderson said.
Friday's operation drew the attention of upwards of 125 individuals who inquired about advertised services, Mahurin said/
It resulted in 19 arrests, including two Santa Rosa men who came to motel rooms after making arrangements to have sex with what they thought were 13-year-old girls, Anderson said.
The two men, Benito Martinez Guzman, 35, and Cesar Briceno, 45, were arrested on suspicion of going to an arranged meeting place for the purpose of engaging in lewd and lascivious conduct with a minor or someone they thought was a minor - a felony punishable by two, three or four years in state prison.
Five other men were arrested in Santa Rosa for suspected solicitation of prostitution, a misdemeanor. Another five men face the same charge after their arrests at a Rohnert Park motel.
In Petaluma, officers arrested six women suspected of arranging to provide sexual services for pay, a misdemeanor. A man was arrested for aiding the trade, while two others remain under investigation, police said.
Mahurin said "Dear John" letters would be sent to 75 or more people to alert them their phone numbers were used to inquire about illegal activity.
You can reach Staff Writer Mary Callahan at 521-5249 or mary.callahan@pressdemocrat.com.
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