YAVAPAI COUNTY, Ariz. — A man was arrested for soliciting a sex act for payment from an underage girl on Jan. 11, authorities said.
Human trafficking detectives embedded with the Yavapai County task force arrested 31-year-old Leeon Baskerville of Prescott Valley. Baskerville allegedly contacted the girl and agreed to meet, which is where detectives were able to arrest him for child sex trafficking.
Authorities said Baskerville was found possessing a deadly weapon, which he was not permitted to own due to a prior arrest, as well as other evidence connected to the trafficking charge. He was arrested for weapons misconduct and soliciting a sex act for payment from an underage girl, and booked into the county jail, authorities said.
“I am proud of our human trafficking detectives for taking this predator off the streets,” Yavapai County Sheriff David Rhodes said in a press release. “Crimes perpetrated at the expense of our most vulnerable are particularly heinous, and because of the hard work of law enforcement, children are no longer in danger from this man."
The human trafficking detectives are new to the Partners Against Narcotics Trafficking task force in Yavapai County, which is funded in part by the Arizona Legislature and the Governor's Anti-Human Trafficking grant fund.
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