Originally published in The Vacaville Reporter on March 1, 2016 By Sally Schilling.
Fairfield police worked with FBI and Air Force investigators over the weekend on a human trafficking operation that led to the arrest of three men — one from Vacaville — for alleged sex trafficking of underage girls.
Four teenage girls were contacted and were determined to be trafficked by adult men for profit, according to the Fairfield Police Department, which worked on the operation to identify children being sexually exploited alongside the FBI’s Solano County Violent Gang Task Force and the Air Force Office of Special Investigations.
Christopher Stewart, 19, of Vacaville, Paul Wells, 18, of Rancho Cucamonga, and Jahil Mitchell, 19, of Sacramento, were arrested on human trafficking charges, police said.
Thousands of children nationwide are sexually exploited for profit every year, the police department stated in a press release about the operation.
“Some are lured or enticed into these circumstances by others pretending to be boyfriends, while others are forced through threats or acts of violence,” the department stated.
Several other men were identified for involvement in human trafficking and pimping, and the investigation is ongoing, police said.
During the operation, 13 adult women also were arrested for allegedly soliciting prostitution, drug offenses and outstanding warrants. The women were contacted by an advocate from SafeQuest, Solano County’s Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault agency, and then booked into Solano County Jail, police said.
The operation was funded by a grant from the California Office of Emergency Services’ Sexual Assault Law Enforcement Specialized Units Program.
