Left, Ernesto Fernandez, Genaro Avalos, and Salvador Mendoza Pille, were arrested by the SLO County Human Trafficking Task Force after they allegedly arranged to meet a teenage girl for sex who was an undercover detective.
Investigators with a special task force fighting human trafficking, arrested three men in December for allegedly trying to lure a teenage girl for sex.
According to a news release by Sheriff’s spokesman Tony Cipolla, last Dec. 12 the San Luis Obispo County Human Trafficking Task Force “conducted an operation aimed at intercepting child sex predators in the City of San Luis Obispo.”
The cast net ensnared a trio of Hispanic men. “Three men were arrested,” Cipolla said, “after each had arranged to meet with a person who they believed to be under 15-years old, for the purposes of engaging in a sexual encounter. Instead, the person the men contacted was an undercover Detective.”
The three pipped at the post were: Genaro Santana Avalos, 40 of Santa Maria; Ernesto Fernandez, 42 of Santa Maria; and 29-year old Salvador Mendoza Pille of Oceano.
Cipolla said the charges were for allegedly “arranging to meet with a minor for lewd purposes.”
Several agencies were in on the sting. “This operation,” Cipolla said, “was a collaborative effort with the assistance of the Santa Maria Police Department, San Luis Obispo Police Department and the San Luis Obispo County Probation Department.”
Members of the human trafficking task force are from from the Sheriff’s Office and District Attorney’s Office.
Human trafficking for sex has been a large, albeit largely hidden, crime wave in recent years, especially involving young women coming across the Mexican Border and being essentially sold into slavery by the drug cartels and other criminal organizations.
In last November’s Election, President Donald Trump and others from the Republican side, vowed to close the border and actively combat human trafficking, as well as drug trafficking that is also coming across the Southern Border.