Mercury News: San Jose - Maryland Man Arrested in Human Trafficking Sting

SAN JOSE — A Maryland man has been arrested on suspicion of human trafficking after he tried to recruit someone he thought was a 16-year-old San Jose girl into commercial sex work on the East Coast, only to discover that he had been corresponding with an undercover cop, authorities said.

Donnovan Dawkins, 29, was arrested Dec. 30 in Frederick, Maryland by local police on suspicion of crimes involving sex trafficking, according to San Jose police.

The arrest caps a months-long criminal investigation by the Santa Clara County Law Enforcement Investigating Human Trafficking task force, which in the case of Dawkins involved an undercover police officer posting a profile of a teen girl on social-media forums known for sex trafficking communications.