SAN JOSE, CA - FEBRUARY 20: Police tape blocks off the scene of a shooting along Jackson Street in Japantown, in San Jose, Calif., on Saturday, Feb. 20, 2021. One person later died from their injuries and the incident was being investigated as a homicide, the fifth so far in 2021. Police also responded to two other unrelated shootings early Saturday morning one at 1900 block of Poco Way and another on the 500 block of West Alma Avenue. (Anda Chu/Bay Area News Group)
SAN JOSE — Authorities have announced the arrest of a San Jose man in an alleged human trafficking scheme uncovered after police rescued a East Palo Alto teen from a car trunk earlier this year.
Jolaun Canton, 22, of San Jose, was arrested April 20 after a traffic stop in which San Jose police say he tried to flee from officers. Police added that he was found with a ghost gun, a term for a privately made firearm using parts that are not registered or traceable.
Following his arrest, Canton was linked to an investigation conducted by the SJPD Human Trafficking Task Force and East Palo Alto Police Department involving a teen girl from East Palo Alto who was reported missing Feb. 25.
Investigators probing her disappearance tracked to her to a San Jose residence and on March 25, police said they rescued her after finding her inside a car truck on the property. She reportedly told authorities that a man, since identified as Canton, held her “against her will, threatened and forced to engage in commercial sex acts in exchange for money.”
Canton is being held without bail in the Elmwood men’s jail in Milpitas and faces charges including child sex trafficking, evading police and for being a felon in possession of a firearm, according to police and records.
Anyone with information for the investigation can contact the SJPD human trafficking task force at 408-537-1999 or by email at stopslavery@sanjoseca.gov.
Originally published at Robert Salonga