California Man Accused in Drug-Fueled Child Labor Scheme Involving Middle Schooler
A California man is now behind bars after authorities accused him of running a drug-fueled child labor operation that forced a middle school student to sell clothing online for long hours, according to law enforcement officials in the Golden State.
Brandon Holguin, 26, faces charges including child stealing, human trafficking, child abuse under circumstances likely to cause great bodily injury or death, furnishing a controlled substance to a minor, employing a minor during unauthorized hours, and false personation for a written instrument, according to a press release from the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.
“Human labor traffickers frequently target vulnerable children, gaining their trust before isolating them and profiting from the child’s forced labor,” said Nathan J. Hochman. “For three terrifying days, the victim’s parents and law enforcement desperately searched for this missing teen, fearing the worst had happened.”
Authorities said the incidents took place in early May 2025 at a motel and several other locations across Los Angeles County.
Prosecutors allege the defendant first targeted the 14-year-old at a thrift store several months before the trafficking began on May 2, 2025.
Authorities said Holguin later drove the victim to a motel, where he allegedly forced the teen to work “sorting and photographing used clothing items for online resale,” according to prosecutors.
Law enforcement said the workload was extensive, with the victim continuing to catalog hundreds of clothing items late into the warm Southern California night. Prosecutors allege Holguin had a plan to keep the work going.
“He allegedly instructed the victim to ingest a controlled substance containing amphetamine commonly known as Adderall — which made the victim sick — so the victim could work late,” prosecutors said.
According to law enforcement, the defendant initially kept the victim’s cellphone so the teen could not contact family members. Authorities said Holguin later told the minor the phone needed to be discarded so he “could not be tracked by his mother.” Prosecutors allege the defendant then sold the phone and used a fake ID to pawn the victim’s jewelry, pocketing hundreds of dollars.
Authorities also said Holguin allegedly planned to traffic the boy hundreds of miles away to Northern California.
But when that plan fell apart, prosecutors said Holguin abandoned the minor “alone on the side of a Los Angeles freeway in the middle of the night” on May 5, 2025, before “driving away with the proceeds of the sales of the victim’s phone and jewelry,” according to the district attorney’s office.
The victim managed to escape the freeway and found safety at a nearby business, where employees called 911. Later that same day, the LAPD reunited the boy with his family.
Authorities arrested Holguin on May 9, 2025.
In the months that followed, Holguin was arraigned on the initial charges and entered a not guilty plea. Prosecutors later added more charges through a criminal information filing.
According to the district attorney’s office, Holguin appeared in court again on Wednesday, where he was arraigned on the additional charges and pleaded not guilty.
Holguin remains in custody at the North County Correctional Facility in Castaic on a $652,000 bond. The unincorporated community is located about 40 miles northwest of Los Angeles.
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