Los Angeles gang members accused of sex trafficking children along Figueroa Corridor

Federal agents arrested six members and associates of the South Los Angeles-based Hoover Criminal Gang, along with a South L.A. motel manager, in a second major federal-local strike on the Figueroa Corridor, a 3.5-mile stretch of Figueroa Street from Gage Avenue to Imperial Highway that officials have long described as a hub for prostitution and trafficking. The July 1 enforcement action brought the total number of defendants arrested to 10 after a superseding indictment returned June 25 and unsealed July 1 charged conduct spanning February 2021 to June 2026.

Prosecutors said the Hoovers largely controlled sex trafficking and prostitution in the corridor during that period, using social media to recruit victims and physical violence to keep them in line. The indictment also alleged that people tied to the Stadium Inn concealed large amounts of illicit cash, manipulated business records and structured deposits across multiple accounts to hide the source of income. The motel allegations put another layer of scrutiny on the businesses that operated inside the corridor’s trafficking economy.

The case followed a 31-count August 2025 takedown that accused six Hoover members and associates of racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking of children and adults through force, fraud or coercion, recruiting victims through social media and branding victims with tattoos. That case identified Amaya Armstead, known as Lady Duck, as the de facto leader of the 112 set of the Hoover Criminal Gang and accused her of trafficking a 14-year-old girl. Together, the two cases trace a yearslong operation that federal authorities say relied on geography, gang control and open exploitation along one of South Los Angeles’ busiest commercial corridors.

Officials had already launched the Figueroa Corridor Human Trafficking Initiative in September 2024, with then-U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada joining Mayor Karen Bass, City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto, County District Attorney George Gascón, LAPD Chief Dominic Choi, FBI Assistant Director in Charge Akil Davis, Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent in Charge Eddy Wang and Councilmember Marqueece Harris-Dawson. The initiative was designed to bring more cases federally, support victims and target the exploitation of minors and young women. Bill Essayli, now the First Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Central District of California, said that office serves nearly 20 million people across seven counties and that sex trafficking of young women and children remains among the worst crimes it prosecutes.

The violence at the center of the corridor was underscored on June 26, when Elias Abdul Shabazz, 34, was convicted of sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion for abusing a victim on Figueroa Street from May to October 2021. Prosecutors said he used a handgun, pistol-whipped the victim, fired at her feet and imposed daily quotas, a method that matched the coercion prosecutors say sustained the corridor’s trafficking pipeline.