Press Releases

Details:

On Tuesday, June 22, 2021, members of the La Quinta Special Enforcement Team (SET) with the assistance of the Riverside County Anti-Human Trafficking Task Force (RCAHT), and the Southern Coachella Valley Community Services District (SCVCSD) conducted a sex trafficking operation in the city of La Quinta.

La Quinta SET members and assisting teams operated in an undercover capacity, placed decoy advertisements on several popular classified advertisement websites commonly used for the solicitation of online prostitution. Members of this operation then responded to prospective customers replying to these prostitution advertisements. After an agreement for paid sex acts, these “Johns” were then arrested upon their arrival at a pre-determined meeting location. Also, La Quinta SET members negotiated agreed upon acts of prostitution based upon other escort advertisements that were posted online in the area. In these instances, females who responded to the undercover officers posing as customers were directed to meet. After their arrival and an interview, if the females were determined not to be victims of sex trafficking, they were also arrested.

As a result of this enforcement effort, a total of eight men and a woman were arrested on misdemeanor prostitution charges. Those arrested were identified as follows:

Ronald Swenson	Daniel Cudney	Alberto Mendiola	Jorge Durazo Hernandez	Maximino Luviano
Cory Ray Rodgers	Fernando De Jesus Zamorano	Justin Matias Sandoval	Wendy Ruiz Lopez

The La Quinta Special Enforcement Team is asking anyone with additional information to contact La Quinta SET Deputy Michael Scott at (760) 863-8990 or call anonymously at (760) 341-STOP (7867) and reference incident # LA211730011.

For media inquiries regarding this incident please contact the Media Information Bureau.