Federal agents working with the Los Angeles Police Department arrested 10 alleged members of the Hoover Criminal Gang during pre-dawn raids on 14 August as part of Operation Broken Blade, a joint effort by the Department of Justice, Homeland Security Investigations and local authorities. Officers simultaneously rescued four victims, one of them a 14-year-old girl, from motels along the Figueroa Street corridor, a stretch long associated with commercial sex work. A 31-count federal indictment accuses the defendants of sex trafficking of minors and adults, trafficking through force, fraud or coercion, and related drug and firearms offences. Prosecutors say gang members lured vulnerable women and girls with promises of wealth, then beat, starved, raped and even branded them to enforce control. Lead defendant Amaya Armstead, known on the streets as “Lady Duck,” is alleged to have tattooed her moniker on several victims. The operation captured all but one of the eleven people charged; authorities are still searching for fugitive Bryan Isrel. Convictions on the sex-trafficking counts carry potential sentences of 15 years to life in federal prison. Acting U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said the case marks the first major federal takedown targeting the 3.5-mile Figueroa corridor and signals an intensified effort to restore the area to residents and deter further exploitation.