EL DORADO HILLS, Calif. - A case involving a missing El Dorado Hills teenager last March led police to arrest a man on Monday accused of sex trafficking, officials said. Rishi Sanwal, 23, was arrested by FBI agents and Sacramento police at the intersection of Green Valley Road and Francisco Drive and has been charged with sex trafficking, police said.  Authorities found him less than two miles from his parents' home in the 3100 block of Hopkins Place, where they conducted a federal search warrant.

The missing El Dorado Hills teenager, who was last seen with Sanwal in a maroon Hummer, called a friend six days after her disappearance and said she was in the Bay Area, police said.

Using the tip, investigators traced the caller ID information to several online ads placed in the erotic section of Craigslist.  Undercover officers used the same phone numbers from the Craigslist ads to make contact and arrange a meeting with a woman named "Kimberly," police said.  When the investigators arrived at a Motel 6 in Freemont, they discovered the missing El Dorado teen, and connected the online Craigslist ads to Sanwal, police said.

Sanwal is currently being held at the Sacramento County Jail.

El Dorado County and the City of Placerville are among the first local governments to recognize the modern-day form of slavery know as Human Trafficking.  Both the County and the City have passed proclamations to raise awareness of Human Trafficking, which includes sex-trade trafficking.  The issues was raised by Soroptimist District Director Sherri Lum-Alarcon early this year.  She brought the issue to Former Soroptimist District Director, County Supervisor Norma Santiago, who had raised the issue several years ago.  Supervisor Santiago placed a proclamation on the April agenda of the County Board of Supervisors and it was approved unanimously.

Placerville City Councilman Peirre Rivas saw this proclamation and brought it to the City of Placerville which passed a similar Proclamation in May of this year.

"Although many believed that Human Trafficking does not happen in El Dorado County, I knew that where there are people, there is Human Trafficking," said Sherri Lum-Alarcon.  "The first step in stopping Human Trafficking is to become aware of it and to learn how to recognize it."  To facilitate this, she created the website, Defeat Human Trafficking, and is now lobbying other cities and counties to raise awareness of this issue.

This effort includes coordination with Federal, State and Local agencies.  Here she is pictured talking with John Vincent, Chief of the Criminal Division U.S. Attorney’s Office, Sacramento, CA.  He is presently coordinating the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s efforts in the area of human trafficking. He has held a number of positions within that office, and has been division chief since 2003.

To Report A Trafficking Or Involuntary Servitude Case In The United States, Call the “Rescue & Restore” Campaign Toll-Free Trafficking Information and Referral Hotline

1 888 373 7888