Fourteen men were arrested in a multi-day sex trafficking sting at a Gurnee-area hotel in the north suburbs.
The Lake County sheriff’s office announced the arrests Wednesday as part of a national operation targeting the consumers of prostitution, known as “Johns,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement.
The sting used phony online ads selling prostitution and directed the men to a hotel in the Gurnee area, where they were arrested by undercover officers, the sheriff’s office said.
”Many of the individuals selling sex are not doing so willingly, a large number are being forced into involuntary servitude,” the sheriff’s office said in a statement.
In the last decade, the nation-wide anti-human trafficking effort has led to more than 10,000 arrests.
In Cook County, undercover officers arrested 157 men in a similar operation.
The arrests in the Gurnee-area hotel include:
- Salvador Vicario, 61, of North Chicago
- Gregory D. Pahl, 53, of Twin Lakes, WI
- Carlos Reyes-Velez, 36, of Beach Park
- Mark K. Volpe, 62, of Highwood
- Steven P. Wilt, 62, of Gurnee
- Pedro Mendez-Gonzalez, 51, of Waukegan
- Timothy D. Christian, 37, of Waukegan
- Gustavo A. Cornelio-Garcia, 25, of Zion
- Roger C. Jimdar, 31, of Kenosha, WI
- John Powell, 38, of Waukegan
- Sean A. O’Reilly, 43, of Greendale, WI
- Jay Sawyer, 58, of Glenview
- Kyle E. Macgibbon, 59, of Libertyville
- Gregory J. Mason, 53, of Spring Grove
