Oakland Police and FBI take action to assess sex work and human trafficking issues near St. Anthony Catholic School following I-Team report.

OAKLAND, CA (KGO) — Law enforcement is set to increase patrols and install new surveillance cameras after an I-Team report revealed concerns about potential prostitution and human trafficking outside of East Oakland’s K-8 elementary school, city officials said.

Sources have confirmed to I-Team that the FBI detained a 13-year-old girl on E. 15th Street in Oakland last week. Gallo says there are about 20 young women walking down the street, and sometimes pimps are blocking the driveways to houses in the neighborhood.

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Some of the women working on E. 15th St. are out-of-state, according to City Council member Noelle Gallo.

“In the evenings, you’ll see a van pull up and unload the girls, and those vans aren’t from Oakland,” Gallo said.

“Where do these women come from?” asked Stephanie Sierra of ABC7.

“When I was driving down the street with the police, I saw a van pull up and I saw license plates from Nevada. They were brought in from outside Nevada… by a van,” Gallo said.

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Gallo says the vans usually have out-of-state license plates. They arrive early in the morning and leave late in the evening.

“At eight o’clock in the evening, I saw them all get into the van and drive on, and we followed them and they took the highway and drove on,” Gallo said.

Gallo says the Oakland Police Department will increase patrols around the school and the FBI will install additional surveillance cameras. The two agencies disclosed operations in the area last week.

“There are places in a lot of major cities that are called the walk or the walk, that’s where the deal happens,” said Robert Tripp, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s San Francisco unit.

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Investigators say some of the suspected human trafficking operations at E. 15th St. may be associated with gangs.

“Usually the trafficker and the person in charge are the same,” Tripp said. “This crime depends so much on the relationship between the offender and the victim. It’s a very compact chain of command.”

“We understand that a meeting is being prepared now to discuss a new enforcement plan, right?” asked Stephanie Sierra of ABC7.

– Yes. It’s in place,” Gallo said. “But I will state for the public, for the record, that we have closer cooperation with the FBI.”

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Prostitution and human trafficking have long plagued International Blvd. in East Auckland. But as Gallo noted, it has become more common after recent construction has moved women into residential areas. Often you can see it right across the street from St. Anthony’s Church when the children go to school.

“The city needs to do more for this,” said Rosa Vargas, who drives her 5-year-old daughter every day.

The FBI says they are seeing more weapons seized from local human trafficking operations and have discovered that pimps are using apps to track the whereabouts of their victims.

“Traffickers use tracking apps to keep track of their victims,” Tripp said. “Especially in human trafficking operations that take place on the street.”

Take a look at other I-Team ABC7 News stories.

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