In December 2025, the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office Special Crimes Unit was notified of a missing juvenile from Ventura County. During the investigation, detectives located evidence indicating the juvenile was being sex trafficked in Los Angeles. Detectives from multiple investigative units within the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office, with assistance from the Ventura County Sheriff’s Crime Analysis Unit, worked tirelessly to locate the juvenile. The juvenile was safely reunited with their family in early January.
Based on evidence found during the investigation, detectives identified Bryan Jessie Garcia, a 23-year-old resident of Los Angeles, as the juvenile victim’s trafficker.
Garcia used a popular social media platform to groom the juvenile, gain their trust, and eventually coerce the juvenile to leave their home in Ventura County to be sex trafficked near the Figueroa Street corridor, a known high-sex-trafficking area…