MONTEREY, Calif. - A 35-year-old Monterey woman has been arrested in connection to human trafficking and other charges, said police.
The Monterey Police Department arrested Aaliyah Solange Ali Person, also known as Lisa Louise Banner, after investigating an allegation that an underage female runaway from the bay area was brought to Monterey to be a prostitute.
A search warrant was served at Person's home on Blue Larkspur Lane in Monterey where evidence of drug sales was also located.
"I'm shocked," says Mary Belser, a neighbor who lives in the gated community. "We are so safe out there. We don't have anything like that, or anything else going on. It's sad. It breaks my heart."
While neighbors are shocked, the Monterey County Rape Crisis Center isn't. They say, a runaway on the street is more vulnerable to get picked up and forced into prostitution."
"This particular crime is underreported, probably more than any other, that we know of," says Clare Mounteer from the Monterey County Rape Crisis Center.
Mounteer said, it's hard to say how common human trafficking is on the Peninsula because victims are often fearful and can't escape their pimps.
"We might see young women who come forward who have been raped, but might not say that they have been trafficked," says Mounteer. "I suspect that goes on more often than we know."
Even in Monterey, an area not known for sex crimes. But, Mounteer said, more than 100 cases of sexual assaults in this area are reported to police every year and that's just the ones they know about.
"These things do happen in this community and it's something we do have to keep our eyes open about," says Mounteer.
Person was booked on multiple charges and posted bail. She is currently facing charges of pandering, human trafficking, kidnapping with intent to extort, grand theft of personal property, possession of stolen property and transportation of marijuana for sale.
The underage girl was reunited with a family member and Monterey Police are currently looking for other victims.
