Feds smash kingpins of prostitution and horrific human trafficking in LA’s infamous Figueroa Corridor
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A SWAT team with guns drawn swarmed a seedy motel on Los Angeles’ infamous Figueroa Corridor before dawn Wednesday to arrest an accused brothel kingpin tied to a vile prostitution ring that victimized girls as young as 14.
“Come out with your hands up,” an LAPD SWAT called out over a bullhorn, as suspect Ahir Mukeshkumar filed out of the Stadium Inn and Spa wearing a T-shirt and shorts.
Prosecutors identified Mukeshkumar as the motel’s on-site manager and said he rented 90% of the rooms to men who paid to have sex with kids as young as 14. He allegedly got to pocket half of the proceeds.
The arrest was part of a sweeping federal takedown of the sex trafficking industry in LA that targeted pimps and human traffickers in an effort to thwart the illegal sex industry besieging the Figueroa Corridor.
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Alleged members and associates of LA’s infamous Hoover Gang — along with Mukeshkumar — were among 10 defendants arrested on in a federal indictment charging them with a series of crimes, including sex trafficking of children.
By 5 a.m. Wednesday, six suspects including Mukeshkumar had already been arrested in up to a dozen simultaneous raids conducted across LA and Orange County.
Dubbed “Operation Broken Blade,” prosecutors said the takedown marks the first gang case to primarily target human trafficking in the Figueroa Corridor, a hive of prostitution known to locals as the Blade.
LA’s top federal prosecutor, Bill Essayli, told The California Post that the operation began 11 months ago, when a federal grand jury indicted 11 Hoover members on sex trafficking charges.
Cops who work in the Blade say the Hoover ring targets runaways and foster children, forcing them into prostitution through violence, threats and branding with gang tattoos.
Essayli labeled them the worst of the worst.
“This is a scourge on Los Angeles, and particularly the Figueroa Corridor, and historically not enough has been done to arrest these criminal actors and to rescue these young women,” said Essayli.
According to the 65-count superseding indictment unsealed Wednesday, the Hoovers largely controlled sex trafficking and prostitution in the Figueroa Corridor from 2021 to the present and acted as pimps to promote and manage sex trafficking.
The indictment lists 51 victims impacted by the alleged crimes.
Prosecutors said the Hoovers worked together to recruit new victims via social media or in person, focusing on vulnerable girls and young women with financial or emotional struggles, or those who had run away from home or were in foster care.
Hoover pimps made false promises of a luxurious lifestyle, but delivered only violence and abuse, plying their victims with drugs to create addictions they could exploit, authorities said.
The Hoovers are accused of committing heinous crimes against the girls, including biting a piece of one girl’s the cheek off , beating another with a Rolex watch wrapped around the pimp’s hand, forcing another to do sex work on the day of an abortion procedure, and throwing another out of a car and stealing the vehicle with children in the back seat.
Essayli said the feds and the LAPD are putting the fearsome gang on notice.
“This case demonstrates the power of working collaboratively with our local and state law enforcement partners,” he said. “When we work together, we can accomplish much more to protect our communities.”