Continuing efforts to try to restrain a burgeoning trade in commercial sex along Sonoma County's Highway 101 corridor prompted three coordinated, multi-agency sting operations Friday, resulting in 19 arrests, authorities said Monday.
Those arrested included two Santa Rosa men suspected of making arrangements to meet what they thought was a 13-year-old girl, Santa Rosa police said.
Five others also were arrested in Santa Rosa for suspected solicitation of prostitution, a misdemeanor, after responding to online ads posted by undercover detectives posing as prostitutes, police said.
In Rohnert Park, five respondents to similar advertisements were arrested for suspected solicitation when they arrived at a local motel.
A Petaluma sting targeted women responding to advertisements in pursuit of sex providers, police said. Five women were arrested, as was a man who was taken into custody for aiding the transaction. Two other suspected pimps are under investigation as a result of the operation, police said.
Officers from the Sonoma County Human Trafficking Task Force, the FBI, a variety of social welfare groups and representatives from 18 other law enforcement agencies from around the Bay Area, including the Department of Homeland Security, participated in what Santa Rosa Police Sgt. Terry Anderson described as a very complex operation.
The effort was a response, in part, to what authorities say is the growing availability and demand for commercial sex in the vicinity of the Graton Resort and Casino, which opened Nov. 5, Anderson wrote in a news release. Some providers actually mention their proximity to the casino in their advertisements, Anderson said.
The FBI's Innocence Lost Program joined the Sonoma County task force in launching the operation. Both are heavily focused on preventing children from being trafficked. The task force includes the District Attorney's Office, Sonoma County Sheriff's Office, Santa Rosa, Rohnert Park and Petaluma police departments.
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