MLB All-Star Game Prostitution Sting Nets 131 Arrests

[matcom]

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Law enforcement officials said Monday that 131 people were arrested in a prostitution and child exploitation sting between July 6 and July 12 in conjunction with the Major League Baseball All-Star game in San Francisco.

Oakland police spokesman Roland Holmgren said the sting was conducted because "a significant number" of Oakland-based prostitutes ply their trade at high profile events such as baseball all-star games, pro football's Super Bowl and the Hot August Nights festivities in Reno every summer.

Of the 131 arrests made by 10 agencies that worked together, 46 were in San Francisco, 40 were in Oakland, 28 were in other parts of Alameda County, 11 were in San Jose and three each were in South San Francisco and Campbell, Holmgren said.

Holmgren said law enforcement officials conducted undercover operations, posed as prostitutes and engaged in Internet stings.

Joining Holmgren at a news conference at the state building in Oakland, Nola Brantley, the director of the Sexually and Commercially Exploited Youth program in Oakland, said child prostitution has become "an epidemic" in the city, partly because many foster care and group homes are located there and pimps recruit girls at such facilities.

"Oakland is a hub for commercial sex exploitation," Brantley said.

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