FBI Press Release
For Immediate Release: August 8, 2008

A man charged with federal violations including sexual trafficking of children and transportation of a minor with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity, was taken into federal custody today by agents with the FBI, announced Salvador Hernandez, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office.

According to a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, Aaron Pierre Brown, 28, of Hayward, California, controlled a prostitution operation in which he victimized minor females. Brown, who allegedly advertised the services of the minor girls on an Internet website, is accused of beating the minors and forcing them to comply with his demands. Brown allegedly took sexually explicit photographs of the minors and used some of them to advertise prostitution services on the Internet. According to the complaint, Brown encouraged at least one victim to read a book he allegedly authored which contained rules the minor had to obey while working as a prostitute. According to the complaint, victims alleged that Brown controlled everything and would force victims to work on “tracks,” in his apartment and in hotels throughout California and in Arizona. Victims claimed they were afraid they would be beaten if they kept prostitution earnings from Brown, according to the complaint. Brown allegedly beat the victims with various items, including cords and wire hangers, among others, according to the complaint.

The complaint charges Brown with Title 18 U.S.Code Section 1591 (a)(1), sex trafficking of minors by force, fraud, and coercion; and 2423(a), transportation of a minor with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity.

In September 2007, a search warrant was executed at Brown’s home in Hayward, California. Evidence of the prostitution operation was found, and a forensic examination of Brown’s computer revealed several hundred sexually explicit images of minor girls.

Brown was arrested at Folsom Prison this morning, where he was serving a sentence for a recent parole violation. Brown was afforded an initial appearance before a federal magistrate in U.S. District Court in Sacramento this afternoon and was detained. Brown waived his right to be tried in Sacramento and it is anticipated that he will be transported to Los Angeles to face prosecution.

The arrest of Brown is the result of an ongoing investigation by the FBI’s SAFE Team in the Los Angeles Field Office, the Los Angeles Police Department’s Vice Division, the FBI in Sacramento, San Francisco and Arizona, the California Dept of Corrections and Rehabilitation, the Sacramento Police Department, Oakland Police Department, Hayward Police Department and Toledo Police Department. This case will be prosecuted by the United States Attorneys Office in Los Angeles.

The SAFE Team in Los Angeles (Sexual Assault Felony Enforcement) is made up of agents, officers and prosecutors from the following agencies: FBI, California Department of Justice-Bureau of Investigation and Intelligence, LAPD, CHP, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, Orange County Sheriff’s Department, United States Postal Inspection Service, The Department of Child and Family Services, the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office and the United States Attorney’s Office.

This investigation was conducted as part of the FBI's Innocence Lost Initiative. The Innocence Lost Initiative was developed in the Spring of 2003, when the FBI’S Violent Crime and Major Offenders Unit, in partnership with the Department of Justice and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, increased efforts to address the growing problem of children forced into prostitution.

 http://losangeles.fbi.gov/pressrel/2008/la080808.htm