Man Nicknamed 'Scarface' Charged With Human Trafficking Of Teen Girls: Police

A 45-year-old man in Oakland, California, has been charged with allegedly trafficking two teenage girls last year.

Police drafted an arrest warrant last month for Lawrence Johnson, of Oakland, after an unidentified teenage girl identified him as her pimp and accused him of trafficking her in Oakland, Stockton and other parts of California for almost one month last year.

However, Johnson was already in the Santa Rita Jail in Dublin, California, for a separate but similar case involving another teen girl when police went to arrest him for the latest allegations, East Bay Times reported, citing court records. Both girls were allegedly trafficked around the same time frame.

Johnson has been charged with human trafficking of a minor in the two "near-identical" cases, according to the report.

Police alleged in court records that one of the unidentified victims was detained on Aug. 29, 2021, in a prostitution sting on International Boulevard. She subsequently identified Johnson as her pimp.

She told police that two days earlier, Johnson allegedly pulled up alongside her in a vehicle as she stood on 25th Avenue and International Boulevard, told her she was pretty and convinced her to get in his car.

Two days before that arrest, police also received a tip about a man nicknamed "Scarface" who was trafficking girls in Oakland. The tip came from a victim’s advocate in the Contra Costa County District Attorney's Office who reported that one of her colleagues knew of a trafficking victim in Oakland.

The teen girl identified Johnson only by the nickname Scarface because of a scar below one of his eyes, according to police.

When police tracked the girl down, she told officers that Johnson allegedly trafficked her on International Boulevard for roughly 10 days, then took her to a hotel in Stockton where they stayed for another 10 days.

She alleged that she "worked every night" and turned all the money over to Johnson as a "program fee." The amount she handed over allegedly totaled thousands of dollars, police said.

The girl also alleged that Johnson "hurt" her when she tried to leave.

"The victim told Johnson she wanted to leave and he grabbed the bags out of her hand and threw her against the door, she screamed as Johnson hurt her head," Oakland police investigator Louise Reeves wrote in a probable cause statement. "The police were called but she did not give her name to them. Johnson would not let her leave the hotel but she was eventually able to get away."

Johnson's bail has been set at $360,000 in one case and $400,000 in the other.