Full Notification

SAPD ARRESTS 20 MEN FOR ATTEMPTING TO PURCHASE SEX IN ANTI-SEX TRAFFICKING SWEEP

The Santa Ana Police Department arrested 20 men last night in an undercover sting operation targeting suspects attempting to purchase sex in an ongoing anti-sex trafficking enforcement action.

SAPD Vice Detectives in the area of Harbor Boulevard identified and arrested 20 males attempting to purchase sex or sex acts from undercover female officers, whom the suspects believed to be prostitutes. The suspects were cited and released and the 20 cases will be referred to the Orange County District Attorney’s Office.

The arrestees included:

David Flores, 32, Aliso Viejo
Ariel Castro, 41, Santa Ana
Paulino Lopez, 47, Santa Ana
Felipe Barrera, 32, Garden Grove
Michael Davis, 35, Fountain Valley
Silvestre Jacob, 40, Garden Grove
Anthony Bello, 18, Santa Ana
Oscar Castaneda, 31, Santa Ana
Herbert Yoneoka, 68, Fountain Valley
Omar Moreno, 35, Santa Ana
Noe Hernandez, 34, Santa Ana
Tony Nguyen, 44, Westminster
Luis Ortiz, 27, Santa Ana
Israel Ruiz, 29, Garden Grove
Paulino Martinez, 39, Santa Ana
Christopher Witts, 28, Upland
Jonathan Peralta, 20, Westminster
Heladio Herrera, 20, Santa Ana
David Montano, 31, Anaheim
Rios Francisco, 33, Santa Ana

The area of Harbor Boulevard is known to law enforcement to be a high-prostitution area and is known to frequently be used by individuals who sexually exploit and traffic women and underage girls for financial gain, including pimps, panderers, and human traffickers.

SAPD regularly conducts anti-sex trafficking sweeps as part of a City and County-wide effort to eliminate the demand for prostitution and reduce the opportunity to commercially sexually exploit women and children.