Teams That Busted Chesco Human Trafficking Ring Awarded

EAST WHITELAND TOWNSHIP, PA — Law enforcement teams that worked together to dismantle a ring of sex traffickers in Chester County last summer were commended this week by the Citizens Crime Commission.

Deputy District Attorney Erin O’Brien, Chester County Detectives, East Whiteland Township Police, and U.S. Department of Homeland Security Investigation were awarded a multi-unit citation by the Citizens Crime Commission for dismantling a human sex trafficking organization in July 2020.

"In a superb illustration of interagency investigative effort, the investigation resulted in identifying and arresting three members of a sex trafficking organization, along with five individuals who paid the organization to engage in sexual acts with minor children and adults," Chester County District Attorney's Office said today.

Last July, a ring of traffickers was busted after a 14-year-old victim managed to message her mother from a local Wawa, leading law enforcement to an apartment where she and another teen were being held against their will and were being used in what the District Attorney at the time called, "calculated and deviant sexual exploitation of the two victims." Read that story here.

Dimas ("Adonys") Omar Cornejo Hernandez, 34; Franklin ("Mono") Rivera Mendieta, 25; and Josue Sibrian Sanchez, 33, are charged with operating a Corrupt Organization that engaged in a pattern of racketeering activity that included Trafficking in Minors, Involuntary Servitude, Criminal Conspiracy, Kidnapping, Rape, Involuntary Deviate Sexual Intercourse, Promoting Prostitution, and other charges. Their cases are currently listed as active and open in Chester County Court. Five others were also charged in connection with the case.

Investigators connected the trafficking ring to the Los Angeles-based 18th Street gang, the Philadelphia Inquirer has reported.

"Chester County is safer as a result of all of their hard work and dedication. Thank you," the D.A.'s office said today.

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