Five men were arrested at a Guthrie hotel earlier this month after responding to fake online prostitution ads during a law enforcement training exercise, but Logan County District Attorney Jeremiah Gregory says a wave of press releases describing the operation contain serious misinformation. Gregory says the sting involved no human trafficking victims at all, despite public statements suggesting otherwise.
According to KOKH, the Guthrie Police Department participated in a three-day law enforcement training and prostitution sting operation in Guthrie, Oklahoma, during which officers waited at a hotel room to arrest people who responded to fake prostitution ads. Guthrie Police arrested Kenneth Blevins, Victor Najera, Johnny Goforth, Elwyn Patmon, and Carlos Rubio de Santiago, each on complaints of solicitation and violations of the Computer Crimes Act, per the outlet's reporting.
The conflict centers on how the operation's results were described publicly. On September 14, the Oklahoma Attorney General's Office issued a press release stating that AG Gentner Drummond's Human Trafficking Response Unit, local law enforcement partners, and Skull Games Solutions had recovered 15 potential victims during the Guthrie bust, according to Oklahoma.gov. Multiple agency press releases also said the five arrested men were accused of harboring and trafficking human beings, per KOKH.
DA Says the 15 Were Never Real People
Gregory pushed back directly, saying the five defendants were actually charged with solicitation, not trafficking, and that the operation involved no human victims. Guthrie Police confirmed the 15 alleged victims were internet profiles, not people law enforcement made in-person contact with, KOKH reported. Gregory said those profiles were created to train participants to identify possible human-trafficking victims, not to represent real individuals recovered from a hotel.
Three women were contacted by training participants during the exercise to discuss available services, but law enforcement determined those women were not victims of sex trafficking and did not find evidence they had engaged in prostitution, according to the same KOKH report. Gregory called the public claim that 15 potential victims were recovered a gross misrepresentation of the facts, arguing the public was led to believe those 15 profiles represented people actually found at the hotel.
A Statewide Training Model Under Scrutiny
The Guthrie exercise reflects a broader 2026 pattern in Oklahoma, where the AG's Human Trafficking Response Unit and Skull Games Solutions have paired classroom open-source intelligence training with immediate hotel stings in Garfield County, Broken Arrow, and Woodward, according to the Garfield County Sheriff's Office. Skull Games Solutions is described as a veteran-led nonprofit that uses open-source intelligence to train officers and identify online sexual exploitation, and it partnered with the AG's office to run the classroom instruction that created the artificial profiles used in Guthrie.
Beyond Guthrie Police, the three-day training and undercover operation drew officers and deputies from the Logan County Sheriff's Office, Payne County Sheriff's Office, and Jones Police Department, according to the Guthrie News Page. That outlet's initial September 11 reporting said participants identified 15 profiles during classroom training and that three victims were ultimately recovered, a figure that differed from the AG's later formal announcement of 15 victims recovered. Jail records initially listed all five men held on prostitution or lewdness complaints before formal charges were filed, per the same report.
Felony Exposure Under Oklahoma's Computer Crimes Act
Under Oklahoma law, simple solicitation of prostitution is a misdemeanor carrying up to 30 days in jail and a $2,500 fine, but using a computer, smartphone, or internet connection to facilitate that solicitation upgrades the offense to a felony under the Oklahoma Computer Crimes Act, carrying up to five years in prison and a $5,000 fine, according to the Hunsucker Legal Group. That distinction explains why all five men arrested in Guthrie face both solicitation complaints and Computer Crimes Act violations rather than trafficking charges.
Gregory was sworn in as District 9's district attorney on July 31, taking over Logan and Payne counties from retiring 12-year DA Laura Austin Thomas and pledging to restore transparency, accountability, and public trust to the office, per THE STILLWEGIAN. Just ten days into the job, he filed first-degree murder charges in a Stillwater domestic violence homicide and won a no-bond hold for the suspect, a case Hoodline covered in its report on the Stillwater knife killing case. His public correction of the AG's Guthrie release fits the aggressive, transparency-focused posture he has taken since day one.
Human trafficking remains, in Gregory's own words relayed by KOKH, a heinous and reprehensible crime, and the state has continued directing resources toward victim services in the region. In February, AG Drummond awarded $1 million in grants through the Human Trafficking Response Unit to five certified providers, including $50,000 to Wings of Hope for survivor services in Guthrie, Stillwater, and Cushing, according to Oklahoma.gov. Whether the Guthrie sting itself uncovered any real trafficking victims, however, remains a point of public dispute between the state and the local prosecutor now handling the case.
