Kings County: Weekend multi-agency human trafficking crackdown leads to 12 arrests
Over the course of a weekend in late August, a multi-agency operation aimed at cracking down on human trafficking in Kings County led to the arrests of twelve people.
From Friday to Sunday, August 19 to 22, personnel from multiple agencies and organizations — the Kings County Sheriff’s Office, Kings County Major Crimes Task Force, the California DOJ, the FBI, and the advocacy group Breaking The Chains — set out to curb the spread of human trafficking and child exploitation in Kings County.
Their efforts involved several sting operations in which suspected predators were baited by investigators using fake online profiles. The investigators would arrange transactions ranging from paying for sex to procuring minors for sex, and arrest the suspects who attempted to carry out the transaction. By weekend’s end, twelve people had been arrested on human trafficking and exploitation charges.
Among those arrested, police have identified: Van Patrick Lazaro (29), Fabian Hernandez Arroyo (29), Marshall Scott (27), Luis Gomez (55), Adam Vang (22), Amadeo Alzola (33), Steven Davis (53), Joseph Flores (29), and Jerry Beard (26).
