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LOS ANGELES () — Los Angeles is known around the world for being the home of Hollywood and having some of the world’s best beaches, but it also has a much darker side.
There’s a notorious hub for human trafficking just south of Crypto.com Arena and the Los Angeles Convention Center.
Criminal activity often happens in the shadows. Hidden so as not to draw the attention of passers-by, police or nosy neighbors.
On a stretch of the Figueroa Corridor, however, very little is hidden from view.
A four-mile section of Figueroa Street in South Los Angeles, from Gage Avenue to Imperial Highway, is well known for rampant prostitution.
On nearly every corner, women in revealing outfits approach cars, day and night, out in the open, offering sex for a price.
This area has become known as “the Blade.”
Law enforcement officers, nonprofit advocates and survivors say it’s one of the most dangerous hubs for human trafficking in the state.
It’s fueled by a constant stream of customers and a lack of law enforcement resources to stop it.
“It is a huge, huge issue, and everybody should be extremely concerned,” said Liz Armendariz, an LAPD officer and vice investigator for LAPD’s 77th Division. “I just think, man, that is somebody’s kid, and it’s heartbreaking.”
Vice units from the 77th patrol this section of Figueroa Street. We spent two nights with investigators, who showed us how they stop women from selling sex and perform age checks.
If the person they stop is underage, she is brought back to the station, interviewed and turned over to the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services. If the woman is over the age of 18, she is often released.
“There are men out there that have a taste for females and juveniles, and they know that they can find it. The pimp starts noticing, ‘Hey, they want underage-looking people.’ They’re going to start recruiting underage people. The thing is that they’re much easier to manipulate mentally because a lot of times they come from broken homes,” said Navarro.
“Our goal these days is not to arrest them. Our goal is to get them resources and the help they need to get out of their lifestyle,” he added.
Police tell us the pimps expect women working “the Blade” to earn hundreds of dollars a night.
“That’s going to change girl to girl,” Sgt. Navarro said. “It’s going to be $600 to $800 to $1,200 a night.”
We learned from our time out on “the Blade” and by talking to women who survived trafficking that the violence out there is extreme.
That violence comes from the pimps, the sex buyers and the other girls and women working out there.
What happens to the underage girls the LAPD finds out there, and does the LAPD have the resources to get in front of this problem?
Those are just some of the issues we’ll be tackling in our primetime 7 On Your Side Investigates special.
Watch the 7 On Your Side Investigates special “Sex in Plain Sight: The Figueroa Corridor” this Saturday at 10:30 p.m. on 7.
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