(Twin Cities) By Mara H. Gottfried — St. Paul police are investigating a juvenile prostitution ring run by gang members, according to a search warrant filed this week.

A juvenile female told an investigator four males had sexually assaulted her in Brooklyn Park in April, according to an affidavit in support of a search warrant.

St. Paul police are involved in the investigation because of the department’s human trafficking efforts, said Sgt. Paul Schnell, police spokesman. Federal and local law enforcement agencies also are involved, he said.

No arrests have been made, and because the investigation is ongoing, Schnell said he couldn’t comment on anything that wasn’t in the affidavit.

The affidavit, filed Tuesday in Ramsey County District Court, was to search a laptop computer that was seized when another search warrant was executed May 4 in Brooklyn Park.

The warrant was granted and photos were copied from the hard drive, according to the inventory receipt. A juvenile witness had tried to videotape the sexual assaults, the witness told police, according to an affidavit for the original warrant, filed in Hennepin County District Court.

Confirmed members of the Somali Outlaws, Somali Mafia and other cliques within the gang were running the prostitution ring, the affidavit said.

The juvenile victim, who was identified as A.W. and whose age wasn’t noted, said a 19-year-old man known as “Hollywood,” Haji Osman Salad, brought her to a Brooklyn Park home April 23, the affidavit said.

Salad, who has not been charged in the case, told A.W. to have sex with his “boys,” meaning members of the gang, the affidavit said. A.W. was directed to a bedroom on the house’s lower level with several beds inside and a lot of condoms underneath one.

She lay on one of the beds and four males had sex with her, one at a time, the affidavit said.

Mara H. Gottfried can be reached at 651-228-5262.

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