Overview

• A federal grand jury returned a 31-count indictment on August 13 charging 11 alleged members and associates of the Hoover Criminal Gang with racketeering and sex trafficking of minors and adults.
• Six suspects were arrested the same day, including lead defendant Amaya Armstead, while one remains at large and others are held in state custody pending federal proceedings.
• The indictment alleges the gang controlled prostitution along South L.A.’s Figueroa Corridor from February 2021 through August 2025 using pooled motel rooms, branded tattoos and social-media recruitment of vulnerable youths.
• Prosecutors say the enterprise coerced runaways, foster children and economically or emotionally at-risk women through force, fraud and drugs, demanding all commercial-sex proceeds under threat of violence or public humiliation.
• Homeland Security Investigations, IRS Criminal Investigation and the LAPD joined the operation to dismantle the ring and pursue federal penalties that include mandatory minimums of 15 years to life imprisonment.