A Thousand Oaks man gave a teenage boy Adderall and forced him to work around the clock selling goods online from a Southern California motel, then abandoned him on a Los Angeles freeway in the middle of the night, prosecutors said.
Brandon Holguin, 26, met the 14-year-old boy at a thrift store four to six months earlier, then took the child to a motel room, where he was forced to sort and photograph used clothing items for resale online between May 2 and May 5, 2025. Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office Press release.
Holguin allegedly asked the minor to take Adderall, which made the child sick, so he could work nights.
“Human labor traffickers often target vulnerable children, gaining their trust before isolating them and turning a profit by subjecting children to forced labor,” Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Nathan Hochman said in the release. “For three terrifying days, the victim’s parents and law enforcement officials desperately searched for this missing teen, afraid something bad might happen.”
According to the release, Holguin is charged with six felonies, including child theft, human trafficking, child abuse under circumstances likely to result in great bodily injury or death, furnishing a controlled substance to a minor, employing a minor during unauthorized hours and false identification for written documentation.
Prosecutors allege that Holguin trafficked the minor to several locations near his north L.A. County home, took the boy’s cell phone and told him he had to get rid of it so his mother couldn’t track him.
According to the release, she then sold the phone and used a fake ID to pawn off the child’s jewelry, which was a gift from her family, in exchange for hundreds of dollars that she did not give to the minor.
Holguin had planned to take the boy to Northern California, but that couldn’t happen, so prosecutors say he abandoned the child on the side of a freeway in Los Angeles in the middle of the night.
The child ran to a nearby location, where deputies called 911, according to the release. After this the police reunited the boy with his family.
Holguin has been in custody since his arrest last year and is awaiting trial. He pleaded not guilty to an amended criminal complaint in April. He is being held on $650,000 bail and, if convicted, could face up to 14 years in state prison
Anyone who may be a victim or has further information about Holguin is asked to contact Detective Salvador Ponce at the LA County Sheriff’s Department at (818) 236-4015.
