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Six men arrested in human trafficking sting in San Luis Obispo County

February 6, 2026

Esteban Ceja

By KAREN VELIE

As part of a human traffic sting in San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties, law enforcement arrested one man for human trafficking and five men for arranging to meet with a girl under 15 years old for sex in late January. Officers rescued three women, one of whom was underage.

San Luis Obispo County law enforcement arrested 30-year-old Esteban Ceja – an undocumented immigrant who was deported from the United States in 2018 and 2020 – for sexual trafficking of a victim using force and fear. He is also charged with two felony counts of pimping, two felony counts of pandering and one count of providing false identification.

Arrested for arranging to meet with a minor for sex in San Luis Obispo County:

  • Gael Pita-Abarca – an 18-year-old recent Morro Bay High School graduate
  • Stephan Mueller – a 62-year-olf man
  • Singh Ashvir – a 22-year-old Cal Poly student

Arrested for arranging to meet with a minor for sex in Santa Barbara County:

  • Gonzalo Luna-Penafort – a 22-year-old man
  • Arturo Delon –a 39-year-old man

Law enforcement also rescued three female sex trafficking victims, two adults and one juvenile.

“Prostitution demand fuels a lucrative market that traffickers exploit with victims—including children—even here,” said District Attorney Dan Dow. “Our local anti-trafficking operations target this commercial sex demand to curb daily exploitation of minors and adults. Warning to sex buyers: reconsider, as your actions heighten risks for ~300,000 American children annually. You can and will be prosecuted if caught.”

 


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  • Gael Pita-Abarca – an 18-year-old recent Morro Bay High School graduate.

  • Singh Ashvir – a 22-year-old Cal Poly student


I would look at the Professors & what their teaching the kids !


5

What? No “Dow is easy on crime”? “Dow is pandering to Trumpees”? “Dow hates democracy”? “Dow lets the Bible tell him what to do”?


Suddenly, the SLO left loves Dan Dow for arresting the same bad guys that ICE is arresting! Dow is a hero again!


If it weren’t for double standards, the left wouldn’t have any.


16

Dow didn’t arrest anybody. Had nothing to do with it.

He is responsible for prosecuting.

Be smarter please.


-1

Liberal policies will push to release him back into society.


Conservative policies will push to lock the perpetrator up to serve time then deport him.


Had enough????? CHANGE THE WAY YOU VOTE!!!!!!


20

Boomers and leftists so mad reading this, incensed these illegal immigrants will face any type of consequence. Lacing up their slip on sketchers to go scream at the receptionist in the jail right now


12

Dont let the propaganda work on you.


Left / Right / Boomers all want illegal immigration stopped. This group in the article is a perfect example of who should be targeted by law enforcement. Criminals.


Every citizen is pleased with this arrest.


The nuance you’re missing — left/boomers don’t want citizens to have their civil rights violated in the process of dealing with criminals.


No American Citizens had their rights violated with this arrest.


When the feds send anonymous, masked, law enforcement into cities/towns — to stop cars and knock on doors based on skin color — regular citizens (not criminals) are being targeted.


Treading on us.


-15

Hey snowflake Anglo:


Definition of Lawful Detainment

Lawful detainment refers to the temporary restriction of a person’s freedom by law enforcement for investigative purposes. It is not an arrest, but rather a brief hold that allows officers to investigate suspicious behavior. During a lawful detention, the individual is not free to leave, but they are also not formally taken into custody.


This type of police action is grounded in the Fourth Amendment, which protects against unreasonable searches and seizures. As long as the detention is based on legal grounds and does not exceed reasonable limits, IT IS CONSIDERED LAWFUL.


ILLEGAL means ILLEGAL


WE THE PEOPLE, in the current vast majority, voted for this. ALL OF THIS!


17

Your common sense post are absolutely spot on and I appreciate ALL of them. Keep up the good work giving all these low IQ individuals a real dose of factual knowledge!!!!!


The vast majority of Americans did vote for this and are happy with the immigration enforcement thus far.


Sanctuary cities and policies create the chaos, NOT IMMIGRATION ENFORCEMENT!!!


15

Eliminate sanctuary cities and sanctuary policies and masked federal officers don’t have to put boots on the ground in these cities to ho after illigal immigrant criminals. Therefore you don’t have American citizens caught up in the process because federal officers go right to the local facilities and pick up the illegal immigrant criminals!!!!!


When state and local officials don’t work hand in hand with federal immigration enforcement, federal officers have to ho in to these cities and deal with it themselves and hundreds to thousands more officers are put on the ground for protection of these officers.


It’s not hard to understand!!!!! You don’t see the massive number of federal officers on the streets in the states that cooperate with federal immigration enforcement.


IT’S COMMON SENSE!!!!!!!


8

100 percent correct.


1

Those 18-22 year old kids ruined their life at the pursuit of…

surely they are not pedos, especially the 18 year old.

But a good example of how are young men today are failing at healthy approaches to women and interacting with them. It screams nerd/ awkward


The ol guys are nasty


28

…In the pursuit of a 14 year old… Yeah they need to put down


19

As a parent and grandparent wholeheartedly agree. I feel the same way about those mentioned and photographed in the Epstein files. It’s shocking how many parents and grandparents are currently accepting of pedophilia.


3

More focus should be on the victims in this story. Where are they from? How did they end up in this situation? How much is a porous border to blame?


17

They’re not mentioned because they are ILLEGAL INVADERS.


5

Evidence we don’t need ICE to apprehend the worst of the worst. Local law enforcement seems to be doing a good enough job. But if we need to round-up old men in their boxers or 5-yr olds with a Spiderman backup then I guess we need ICE.


-33

No , you are wrong!!! We need local law enforcement AND federal law enforcement to apprehend the worst of the worst!!!! And when local agencies apprehend illegal immigrants, they need to turn them over to federal agent for deportation, EXACTLY THE SAME WAY IT WAS EXECUTED DURING THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION AND THE CLINTON ADMINISTRATION WITH NO PROTESTS OR UNREST!!!!


Quit with the TDS and come to grips that the fact is that this same execution of federal law was enforced during Clinton and Obama administrations the same way it is being enforced today, the only difference is radical lefty lunatics are protesting this enforcement!!!!


19

Fantastic. Wire up these guys and crank up the voltage. Do it before Trump calls them patriots. Because if anybody in this forum is disgusted be these guys-they will flip a u-turn if Trump showers the Epstein level creeps with praise.

Too bad Kristin Leavitt doesn’t live in the area. Would love to hear her make excuses and blame the teenage girls for getting kidnapped by these bums.


-62

What? An illegal alien deported twice previously for the same crime in our own backyard? Thank you Democrats! This country’s in such a mess.


78

What? A president elected by you is a pedophile who protects other pedophiles?

Seems like you would be ok with it.


-71

Funny how you spout 47 is a pedophile and protects pedophiles which is such a baseless claim. He’s never been indicted nor formally accused of pedophilia, just a LAME radical left talking point attack that very few on the far left even believe.


You know damn well its the dems fault this P.O.S. illegal immigrant was back in our country committing these heinous crimes.


Go ahead and divert from the fault of the left by spewing “He’s a pedophile and protects pedophiles”. You’re a joke in the majority of American’s eyes!!!!!


53

100%


10

The guy returned twice during Trumps chaotic fake leadership while President. Trump obviously DIDN’T have ANYTHING to do with the guy coming back. But if this happened during Bidens Presidency this forum would be blaming him.

I am thrilled with Trumps tough on crime agenda. It’s too bad he is so dysfunctional and chaotic.

Obama and Clinton were the toughest on immigration. Look it up.


-37

You are right, Obama and Clinton were tough on immigration and not on protest. Not one effing protest. Now all your lefty loons that voted for Biden and his lame duck policies want to protest everthing DJT does.


15

I am a registered republican. A family member was a GOP politician. DJT does a lot of things. People only protest the absolute dumbest things he does.

Over the last few days DJT has been saying things should have been done differently in Minn.

Homan has said they should have done things differently.

They moved out the 2 idiots that started the mess-and things have calmed down almost overnight.

Do you disagree with DJT and Homan?

If republicans were wise they would start protesting what DJT is doing-because he is poisoning their chances in midterms. GOP was getting wiped out in earlier elections before his tariff screw ups took hold. Before the Panama Canal, Canada, Venezuela and Greenland foolishness started. Before the Epstein files started rolling.

If you are a republican, you may want to start protesting what DJT is doing because he is sinking the ship


-14

You should take your own advice, say little


17

This person was arrested, deported, and returned TWICE during Trump’s first term (2018 & 2020). Quote:


> “Esteban Ceja – an undocumented immigrant who was deported from the United States in 2018 and 2020 – for sexual trafficking of a victim using force and fear”


With this latest arrest — it could be 3 round-trips for sexual-trafficking during Trump’s terms.


-1

Caught and deported as required by federal law, 3x.


Not caught and released into the community 3x because REEEEEEEEEE.


WE THE PEOPLE, in the current vast majority, voted for this. ALL OF THIS!


8

And it is also possible that Esteban Ceja first snuck into the U.S. during the Obama Administration (2016 or prior), and very likely that he re-entered (trespassed) back into the United States a third time during the Bribem Administration (January 2021 or later). Apparently, Ceja remained in the United States engaged in his sex slavery enterprise during the entirety of the Bribem Administration. Fortunately, he has been caught for a THIRD time. He needs to be removed from society. Slavers don’t deserve freedom……or oxygen.


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