Southern California Man Found With Missing Girl Faces Human Trafficking Charges
A Los Angeles-area man has been arrested and charged on suspicion of human trafficking after officials located a missing 17-year-old Orange County girl, officials
The girl was reported missing from her home in Irvine on April 28, the Anaheim Police Department reported Monday.
Investigators were told she was possibly being exploited for commercial sex, according to police.
Officers located the missing girl and her alleged trafficker, Alex Matthew Polidore, 23, of Hawthorne, together in Los Angeles.
Anaheim police arrested Polidore, and he was booked into the department's detention facility in the early morning of April 30. The suspect was held on a parole violation and booked on several human trafficking-related offenses, police reported.
Polidore remained in custody Tuesday, according to inmate
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He is being held on $1 million bail and has been formally charged with human trafficking of a minor by the Orange County District Attorney's Office.
Investigators with the Orange County Human Trafficking Task Force began looking into the case after Irvine police reported the girl missing and possibly being exploited, according to the Anaheim Police Department.
The task force targets perpetrators who sexually exploit and traffic women and underage girls for financial gain, including pimps, panderers, and human traffickers.
Task force investigators launched an immediate search and located the victim before arresting Polidore, according to Anaheim police.
'This investigation illustrates the commitment of the [task force] and its partnering agencies in locating and identifying victims of pimping or human trafficking,' the Anaheim Police stated on a press release Monday.
The task force includes officers from the California Highway Patrol (CHP) and police officers from Garden Grove, Irvine, and Santa Ana.
The Orange County District Attorney's Office, county probation, the county's social services agency, the Salvation Army, the U.S. Attorney's Office, and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security are also represented on the task force.
Human trafficking continues to be a problem in California, according to the latest data from 2023.
The United States operates a national
Hotline data from 2015 to 2021 indicate that the reported number of people trafficked nationwide rose from 12,000 in 2015 to more than 22,200 in 2019, then fell to 16,700 in 2021.
In California, the state's share of trafficking cases and people trafficked has fallen. In 2015, the state accounted for 18 percent of all U.S. trafficking cases and 15 percent of trafficked victims. By 2021, 13 percent of both cases and people were in California, according to a 2023
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Fox News
28 minutes ago
- Fox News
Dozens of anti-ICE rioters arrested in LA as Trump sends in National Guard to quell violence
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Forbes
34 minutes ago
- Forbes
Stephen Miller's Order Likely Sparked Immigration Arrests And Protests
White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller speaks to press outside of the White House on April ... More 14, 2025, in Washington, D.C. Miller's orders to federal agents to arrest more people without criminal convictions likely sparked the immigration arrests that ignited protests in Los Angeles. (Photo by) White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller's orders to federal agents to arrest more people without criminal convictions likely sparked the immigration arrests that ignited protests in Los Angeles. The arrests at Home Depot triggered the protests and the escalating response, including Donald Trump's use of the National Guard. The controversy solidifies the view that the Trump administration's goal is to achieve a high level of deportations rather than remove people with criminal convictions. The policy increases the legal peril for businesses and immigrant workers. 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The likely triggering action for the arrests and protests in Los Angeles remains Stephen Miller directing ICE officials to arrest as many people without criminal convictions as possible.
Fox News
44 minutes ago
- Fox News
LA news anchor claims people are having 'fun' watching cars burn, riots 'relatively peaceful'
A Los Angeles news station went viral after its news anchor characterized the anti-ICE riots as "just a bunch of people having fun watching cars burn" on Sunday. During its live coverage of the violent demonstrations rocking downtown LA, ABC7 Los Angeles anchor Jory Rand cautioned law enforcement from escalating tensions by interfering. "It could turn very volatile if you move law enforcement in there in the wrong way, and turn what is just a bunch of people having fun watching cars burn into a massive confrontation and altercation between officers and demonstrators," he said. Correspondent Tim Caputo, who was reporting live from the scene, also warned about the "fine line" police had to walk to keep the peace but not "provoke" the crowd. "It's tough because their presence alone is sometimes agitating the crowd. The police presence, the flashbangs, the tear gas, those are provoking the crowd to fire back, but it's tough because police are not part of the immigration," he said. Caputo added that it was a "nuanced issue" but violence was "not OK" no matter what your cause is. Violence erupted on the streets of downtown Los Angeles on Friday night in response to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids. Vehicles were set ablaze, rioters threw objects at police from a freeway overpass and smashed the windows at the LAPD headquarters. During their live coverage Sunday, both Rand and Caputo emphasized the violence was limited to just a handful of agitators and not reflective of the crowd of protesters at large. Caputo said he wouldn't call the situation a "riot" even though President Donald Trump used the term. "I don't know that I would characterize it [as a riot]," he said. "The vast majority are people taking videos, people waving flags, people walking around, people wanting to be part of the cause, wanting to have their voices heard, and wanting to show the power of numbers and the power of force…[but]you have these pockets of people who are intentionally causing some issues." "It's tough to describe the crowd as a whole as agitators. I wouldn't even say that, even close to that," Caputo continued. "[I]t doesn't seem like this necessarily encompasses the vast majority of people here, it's just everyone gets caught up in the hoopla." "It's a matter of a couple of people kind of ruining everything for everyone else," Rand confirmed. "What might have been a peaceful demonstration certainly is no longer that, as those cars continue to burn and explode." As more explosions went off in the background, Caputo and his cameraman tried to relocate from the scene. Rand then declared that things "look relatively peaceful right now," if you don't count the cars on fire. "It's hard to say that with three cars burning, things do seem relatively calm minus these cars that have been set on fire," the anchor added. The news coverage drew criticism on social media after account LibsofTikTok shared a clip of Rand's comments. ABC7 Los Angeles did not immediately return Fox News Digital's request for comment. Trump sent 2,000 National Guard troops to the area on Friday to address the violence, which drew criticism from California Gov. Gavin Newsom and LA Mayor Karen Bass. Newsom said Trump had overstepped his boundaries when he deployed the National Guard to help with the anti-ICE riots, claiming "local law enforcement didn't need help."
