A Mexican national was arrested by California authorities last week on suspicion of trafficking a 17-year-old girl into the United States. KTLA report.
The suspect was arrested after the girl obtained a cell phone and used it to send a text message to 911. She said the girl only spoke Spanish and she did not know her location, but she described important landmarks and other identifying information to law enforcement. Using that information, authorities were able to find and rescue her within about 20 minutes.
Ventura County Sheriff’s Office report“In the early morning hours of May 9, officers with the Ojai Sheriff’s Division rescued a female human trafficking victim who had been texting ‘911’ to the Ventura County Sheriff’s Communication Center.”
“It’s a relatively new technology.”
The boy, a Casitas Springs resident, was trafficked from Mexico two months ago, the sheriff’s office said. After the girl was rescued from her captors, she was transferred to the county’s Children and Family Services until she could be reunited with her family.
The suspect, Gerardo Cruz, 31, of Veracruz, Mexico, was taken into custody. The sheriff’s office said he was charged with multiple charges including human trafficking, forcible rape, indecency with a child, as well as forcible enticement and sexual penetration. His bail was $500,000.
The Sheriff’s Communications Center received a message in Spanish from the teen, and its systems were able to translate the message into English for 911 dispatchers.
“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 used because the call taker spoke only English and the victim spoke and wrote only Spanish. “Victim,” the office added, and it was quickly retranslated into Spanish.
according to give strength to the fightapproximately “250,000 children are victims of sex trafficking each year.”
“Human trafficking is the fastest growing organized criminal activity in the United States,” the grassroots anti-exploitation group said.
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