A Compton man was charged with human trafficking, pandering, and the attempted pimping of an undercover officer posing as a 17-year-old girl, the Orange County District Attorney’s Office announced Thursday.
Officials with the Orange County Human Trafficking Task Force, assisted by Los Angeles Police Department officers, arrested 28-year-old Alfonso Kee Kee Peterson at an El Pollo Loco in Long Beach on Thursday, July 2—the location where he allegedly told the officer, Jane Doe, to meet him and promised to transport her to engage in commercial sex that evening.
Officials said he was allegedly using a social networking website to recruit girls and women to work for him as prostitutes.
Peterson is accused of interacting with the undercover cop on Friday, June 19, on a social networking website with the intent of recruiting her to prostitute herself for his benefit. He is also accused of pandering to Jane Doe by promising to take care of her and transporting her to areas known for prostitution and human trafficking in the counties of Orange and Los Angeles.
“With the rise in popularity of social media and ease of meeting people on the Internet, many pimps and human traffickers utilize a variety of social media to locate potential victims,” OCDAO officials stated in a press release.
If convicted, Peterson faces a maximum sentence of 12 years in prison. A pre-trial hearing is scheduled on July 15 in Fullerton.
The OCHTTF is a partnership between the Anaheim Police Department, California Highway Patrol, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Huntington Beach Police Department, OCDA, Orange County Sheriff’s Department, and community and nonprofit partners.