Most
Victims were Under 18 and were Recruited from Inland Empire Schools
RIVERSIDE, CA—A federal grand jury has
indicted eight people—four of whom allegedly are members of a South Los Angeles
street gang—on charges related to the sex trafficking of teenage girls who were
recruited and groomed to work as prostitutes across Southern California.
Six of the defendants were arrested this
morning by some of the members of the Inland Child Exploitation/Prostitution
Task Force, which is comprised of agents, deputies, and officers with the FBI;
the Riverside County, California Sheriff’s Department; Riverside Police
Department; San Bernardino, California Police Department; Pomona, California
Police Department; and Ontario, California Police Department. The other two
defendants are already in state custody.
A grand jury on August 1, 2012, returned
an 18-count indictment that accuses seven of the defendants of conspiring to engage
in the sex trafficking of seven teenage girls, six of whom were under the age
of 18. The indictment alleges that “force, threats of force, fraud, and
coercion would be used to cause the victims to engage in commercial sex acts.”
“The sex trafficking of women and
juveniles is a heinous and disturbing crime,” said U.S. Attorney for the
Central District of California André Birotte, Jr. “The charges in this case
send a powerful message to any and all persons—including street gang
members—who would engage in such cruel and heartless conduct. With our partners
in law enforcement, we will continue to pursue and prosecute gang members and
their associates in whatever new criminal ventures they seek to engage in.”
“In recent years, dozens of task forces
throughout the United States have charged over 1,000 defendants and have
successfully recovered more than 2,100 children victimized by domestic sex
trafficking,” said Timothy Delaney, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Los
Angeles Field Office. “Criminal enterprises whose members seek out vulnerable
children for the purposes of prostitution have exploited advances in technology
to extend their reach online and cast a wider net in which to ensnare American
children. Law enforcement at all levels are working collaboratively to address
this growing crime problem.”
In court documents asking that each of
the defendants be held without bond, prosecutors contend “that the defendants
conspired to, and did, recruit, employ, and use minors as prostitutes for their
own financial gain. The defendants preyed on vulnerable victims, convinced them
to become prostitutes, and verbally and physically abused them when they did
not perform as required.”
The defendants named in the indictment
are:
■Paul Edward Bell, who used multiple
monikers, including “J-Roc,” 27, of Lynwood, California, who allegedly is a
member of the Rolling 60s Crips street gang;
■Samuel Rogers, aka “Bone,” 22, of
Moreno Valley, California, another alleged member of the Rolling 60s;
■Gary Rogers, who uses monikers such as “G-Man,”
23, of Moreno Valley, who also is an alleged member of the street gang and is
Samuel Rogers’s brother;
■Christopher Weldon, who is also known
by several names, including “Chris Roc,” 22, of Compton, California, the fourth
alleged Rolling 60s member named in the indictment who is Bell’s half-brother;
■Javiya Brooks, who is also known by
several permutations of “Shady Blue,” 19, of Lynwood, who was the lead
prostitute for Bell;
■Kimberly Alberti, who is also known as
“Pucca,” 19, of Riverside, who was the lead prostitute for Samuel Rogers;
■Kristy Harrell, 20, of Riverside, who
is Gary Rogers’s lead prostitute; and
■Su Yan, 30, of Rosemead, California, a
Chinese national who allegedly assisted Bell with his prostitution business.
The defendants arrested today are
expected to be arraigned on the indictment this afternoon in U.S. District
Court in Riverside. The remaining defendants—the Rogers brothers, who were
already in custody—will be arraigned in federal court on August 29, 2012.
The indictment charges seven of the
defendants with conspiracy to engage in sex trafficking. Six of the
defendants—Bell, Samuel Rogers, Gary Rogers, Weldon, Brooks, and Harrell—are
also charged with at least one substantive count of sex trafficking. Samuel
Rogers, for example, is charged with six substantive counts of sex trafficking.
The substantive sex trafficking charges each carry a mandatory minimum sentence
of 10 years in federal prison and a potential sentence of life without parole.
The indictment also charges Bell with
being a felon in possession of a firearm. Yan is named in one count that
alleges interstate transportation in aid of a racketeering enterprise.
“As sheriff, I am proud of the work
conducted by the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department and its allied agencies,
including the Federal Bureau of Investigation,” said Riverside County Sheriff
Stanley Sniff. “Human trafficking is a serious issue, locally and nationally.
Upon receiving information related to forced prostitution of minor juveniles,
an intensive investigation was initiated by the Riverside Sheriff’s Department.
This investigation expanded, with resources made available by the assistance of
fellow law enforcement agencies, these victims of forced prostitution and
physical abuse were located and rescued and several suspects identified and
arrested.”
“This case is an example of an alarming
trend that we have been seeing for several years on a nationwide and global
scale,” said Riverside Chief of Police Sergio Diaz. “Increasingly, criminal
organizations, including street gangs, are expanding into the areas of
prostitution and human trafficking. The lesson to law enforcement is very
clear; prostitution is not a victimless crime. This is a criminal enterprise
that specifically targeted vulnerable girls and young women. The victimization
of these girls was facilitated by the acceptance of prostitution as commerce.”
The investigation in this case began in
January 2011, when the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department learned that
teenage girls attending schools in the Inland Empire were being recruited to
work as prostitutes. The investigation later revealed that Alberti attended one
of the schools and recruited underage females by “grooming them”—or gaining their
trust and telling them that they could make large sums of money by working as
prostitutes for Alberti’s pimp, according to court documents. The girls who
were successfully recruited to work as prostitutes were brought to the Los
Angeles area, where they were housed at hotels or at the pimps’ apartments.
Some of the victims were housed at Bell’s apartment. The Rogers brothers and
Bell also often housed the victim prostitutes at motels located in the Los
Angeles area.
In a motion seeking the detention of the
defendants, prosecutors argue that the alleged pimps “assaulted several of the
victims in this case by beating them, raping them, and keeping them locked up.”
The investigation in this case was
conducted by the FBI, the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department, and the
Riverside Police Department.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the
Central District of California, Riverside Branch, is handling the prosecution
of the case with the assistance of the Department of Justice’s Child
Exploitation and Obscenity Section.
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