A 17-year-old girl trafficked into the United States from Mexico was rescued from her California home after texting 911, authorities announced Thursday.
The boy spoke only Spanish and was smuggled into California by a 31-year-old Mexican national who is accused of raping a young woman, according to the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office.
Authorities were able to uncover this heinous crime around 3 a.m. on May 9, when their communications center began receiving texts in Spanish asking for help to 911.
Officials who translated the messages tried to figure out where she was.
The victim did not know his location, but provided landmarks visible from his home and other “identifiable information,” the sheriff’s office said.
Law enforcement said officers began searching the scene as the caller continued to exchange text messages with the victim.
“The victim was located by deputies after searching the Casitas Springs area for approximately 20 minutes,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement.
Authorities later identified and arrested Gerardo Cruz, according to the sheriff’s office.
He was charged with human trafficking, forcible rape, lewd acts against a child, seduction by force and sexual penetration.
He is being held on $500,000 bail, the sheriff’s office said.
The girl received treatment and remained at Ventura County Children and Family Services until reunited with her family.
“The ability to send a text message to an emergency call center is a relatively new technology,” the sheriff’s office said.
“In this case, integrated translation technology was also utilized because the caller spoke only English and the victim spoke and wrote only Spanish. can be interpreted and responded to via text message, which was immediately retranslated into Spanish for the victim.”
