"Human labor traffickers frequently target vulnerable children, gaining their trust before isolating them and profiting from the child's forced labor. For three terrifying days, the victim's parents and law enforcement desperately searched for this missing teen, fearing the worst had happened."
"Holguin allegedly told the minor to take Adderall, which made the child sick, so he could work into the night. He then sold the phone and used a fake ID to pawn the child's jewelry, which were gifts from his family, getting hundreds of dollars in return which he didn't give to the minor."
Brandon Holguin, 26, met a 14-year-old boy at a thrift store and transported him to a motel where he was forced to sort and photograph used clothing for online resale over three days in May 2025. Holguin gave the child Adderall to enable round-the-clock work, confiscated his cell phone, and sold it along with his jewelry using a fake ID. The suspect trafficked the minor from his Thousand Oaks home to multiple locations, taking hundreds of dollars from the sales without compensation to the victim. When plans to traffic the boy to Northern California failed, Holguin abandoned him on a Los Angeles freeway at night. Holguin faces six felony charges including human trafficking, child stealing, child abuse, and furnishing a controlled substance to a minor.
Read at Los Angeles Times
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