SANTA CLARA COUNTY, California – In a significant crackdown on a Colombian-based sex trafficking operation in South Bay, law enforcement authorities have arrested nine individuals and successfully rescued 18 victims.
The Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office announced on Tuesday that “Operation Phoenix” had resulted in a slew of charges, including human trafficking, conspiracy to commit human trafficking, pimping, pandering, and money laundering.
If convicted, the suspects could be facing substantial prison sentences, and the investigation is still ongoing, with the possibility of additional charges against other individuals involved, according to a statement from the DA’s office.
While nine arrests have been made, six additional suspects remain at large, as confirmed by the DA’s office.
Operation Phoenix, which marked a historic milestone in Santa Clara County, relied on incriminating text messages and legal wiretapping conducted by the Law Enforcement Investigating Human Trafficking (LEIHT) Taskforce.
This task force, led by the DA’s office in Santa Clara County and co-led with the U.S. Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), played a pivotal role in dismantling the sex trafficking network.
The operation was characterized as one of the largest human trafficking operations in the state and marked the first wiretap-based human trafficking case in Santa Clara County’s history.
The investigation, which commenced in March 2022, stemmed from suspicions surrounding the activities of a Colombian husband and wife who were previously charged with human trafficking-related crimes and were out on bail.
Investigators honed in on approximately 30,000 text messages and calls linked to a single prostitution dispatch number, revealing that this number was used to arrange exploitative encounters between sex workers and customers.
Task force members discovered that traffickers had established a bank of these dispatch phones for customers to schedule sexual encounters with victims at local hotels. The sex trafficking victims, recruited from South America and Mexico, were subjected to seven days of work each week in hotel rooms located in San Jose and various East Bay Area cities.
They were kept under constant surveillance, not allowed to leave the hotel rooms without permission, and were threatened with harm to their families if they attempted to escape or disobey their captors.
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The sex traffickers utilized the laundered proceeds to fund a luxurious lifestyle, according to the DA’s office, and during the investigation, over $200,000 in cash was seized, along with the freezing of assets, including cryptocurrency.
While law enforcement has successfully recovered 18 survivors, the wiretap revealed the existence of more than 30 victims. The rescued women are currently receiving specialized services, including counseling, immediate and long-term medical care, housing assistance, and support related to economic sustainability from various community-based organizations and the DA’s Office.
Among the victims, a teenager from a South American country was located during the operation’s takedown on Thursday and has been placed under the care of the DA’s children’s advocacy center.
Multiple law enforcement agencies collaborated in Operation Phoenix, including LEIHT, HSI (San Jose, Riverside, Miami, and Fresno offices), DA’s Bureau of Investigation, U.S. Department of State’s Diplomatic Security Service (DSS San Francisco Field Office), FBI (Sacramento and San Francisco Divisions), Northern California Regional Intelligence Center, Santa Clara County Regional Auto Theft Task Force, Santa Clara Police Department, San Jose Police Department, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (San Francisco Field Office), Sacramento Police Department, Alameda County Sheriff’s Office, Alameda County Narcotics Task Force, Hayward Police Department, Gilroy Police Department, Sacramento Police Department, the Santa Clara County Specialized Enforcement Team, and the California Department of Justice (Special Operations Unit).
