Sebastian, a person who works against human traffickers, worked for a non-profit organization that tracked down trafficking rings throughout Mexico and the United States, he said he felt like it was his responsibility to help victims and be capable of giving the help he never had when he was younger. 

Sociology professors Elizabeth Ortega and Eileen Ie hosted an event for Domestic Violence Awareness Month, Human Trafficking Part 1, where guest speaker Sebastian,  who uses an alias,  addressed his work as a trafficking hunter.  

Any online claims of someone called Sebastian who’s helping people for a profit isn’t him, as his identity remains a secret and doesn’t work directly with the public. 

He could only refer information he’s given to the non-profit he works for. 

Ortega shared her school email, so any victims or people with information who want to contact Sebastian are able to: ortegae4@elac.edu

Students and faculty can also contact their ELAC representative for East Los Angeles Women’s Center at gorozco@elawc.org  

Ortega wanted people to have easy access to help, even if they’re not East Los Angeles College students or faculty because no one knows anyone’s situation.  

If not, anyone can contact the East Los Angeles Women’s Center for their 24/7 bilingual in Spanish and English hotline: (800) 585-6231 or the National Sexual Assault 24/7 Hotline: (800) 656-4673. 

Sebastian said, “No one’s a snitch. I wish society didn’t demonize people for speaking out because it does make a difference when people look out for others.” 

He started to do this type of work because he was a vicitm of sexual assult and had no one to help him.

Sebastian worked on the case about La Luz del Mundo, a Mexican apostlic church, where he says they were exposed to sex trafficking and sexual abuse of minors in Mexico. 

La Luz del Mundo Church is located throughout the world after it started in Guadalajara, Mexico. One of their churches is located in East Los Angeles near Belvedere Community Regional Park. 

The church leader Naason Joaquin Garcia of the East Los Angeles church was arrested at the Los Angeles International Airport after he was charged with sexual assault of three minors. 

 “It’s worse in Mexico than it is in the (United) States because the corruption in Mexico is severe, with different state police departments working with cartels in their area” Sebastian said.

He’s experienced situations where, to detain one cartel member, he needed to work with police officers in a different state to get authorities to work with him. 

He used the North versus South mentality for police officers when he needed to switch between different states in Mexico because it was easier for him.

Most of his cases required undercover work focused on him befriending traffickers to the point he can get them talking to him comfortably. 

It’s a slow process of getting friendly them until the trafficker decides to offer him sexual services from a minor or woman.

The process is long, but ultimately the girls or women were able to be freed. 

He’s able to spot people who don’t have good intentions, especially with minors, based on their language. 

“We listen to the language that some Americans use at the strip clubs because most of the time they’re describing girls and not women,” he said. 

Sebastian has talked to people who’ve traveled through Mexico and gotten stopped by the cartel, where they’re asked for the girls from their party; it was either that or get killed. 

Many of them had to leave their loved ones in fear and report it to the authorities, but were often told to leave it be because there wasn’t anything they could do since the cartels held the power in Mexico. 

Sebastian said, “It starts from broken homes that have a history with domestic violence, as it is a constant cycle people are put in… the abuse being normalized within society and households to children.” 

Several young people in Los Angeles have glamorized the life of a cartel leader like Joaquín Archivaldo Guzmán Loera, who’s well known as El Chapo.

He said he didn’t understand why El Chapo’s Sinaloa cartel had been normalized within the Latino communities in LA because he’s been the leader of several crimes like smuggling firearms and drugs.

Sebastian said the best way to go against bigger issues like the cartel was starting at homes that have history of domestic violence. 

The crisis hotline for National Domestic Violence help is (800) 799-7233. 

Sebastian wants more people to know that people are fighting against injustice, and they might not see them, but it’s always happening.