Southern California Man Charged with Human Trafficking After Missing Girl is Found

May 7, 2025 TruthUSA

Authorities alerted to the possibility of exploitation involving a 17-year-old girl from Orange County discovered her alongside a man in Los Angeles.

A man from the Los Angeles area has been arrested and is facing charges related to human trafficking after officials found a missing Orange County girl, as announced by authorities on May 5.

The girl was reported missing from her home in Irvine on April 28, according to a Monday report from the Anaheim Police Department.

Investigators suspected she was potentially being exploited for commercial sex, the police noted.

Officers discovered the girl and her alleged trafficker, Alex Matthew Polidore, 23, of Hawthorne, together in Los Angeles.

Anaheim police took Polidore into custody, booking him at their detention facility early on April 30. He was charged with several offenses related to human trafficking, in addition to a parole violation, as reported by the police.

Polidore remained in custody as of Tuesday, according to inmate records.

He is currently held on a $1 million bail and has been officially charged with human trafficking of a minor by the Orange County District Attorney’s Office.

The Orange County Human Trafficking Task Force initiated its investigation after the Irvine police reported the girl missing and suspected exploitation, as detailed by the Anaheim Police Department.

This task force aims to address individuals who sexually exploit and traffic women and minors for monetary gain, targeting pimps, panderers, and human traffickers.

Investigation efforts commenced immediately, leading to the victim’s location and Polidore’s arrest, according to Anaheim police.

“This investigation shows the dedication of the [task force] and its partner agencies in finding and identifying victims of pimping and human trafficking,” stated Anaheim Police in a press release on Monday.

The task force includes members from the California Highway Patrol (CHP) and police departments from Garden Grove, Irvine, and Santa Ana.

Other participants include the Orange County District Attorney’s Office, county probation, and social services, as well as the Salvation Army, the U.S. Attorney’s Office, and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

According to the latest data from 2023, human trafficking remains a significant issue in California.

The U.S. operates a national hotline for reporting suspected human trafficking or seeking assistance. In 2023, the National Human Trafficking Hotline identified 1,128 cases of human trafficking in California, involving 2,045 victims.

During the period from 2015 to 2021, data from the hotline indicated that the number of trafficked individuals nationwide increased from 12,000 in 2015 to over 22,200 in 2019, then decreased to 16,700 by 2021.

In California, the percentage of trafficking cases and victims has declined. While in 2015, the state represented 18 percent of all U.S. trafficking cases and 15 percent of victims, by 2021, these figures had dropped to 13 percent for both categories, according to a 2023 study by the Public Policy Institute of California.

Source link