CUMBERLAND COUNTY, Pa. — Authorities in Cumberland County arrested 15 suspects in a human trafficking raid in Hampden Township, District Attorney Seán M. McCormack announced this week.
Operation Impact Demand was conducted by the Cumberland County Human Trafficking Task Force, with help from Hampden Township Police and the county's Sheriff's Department, McCormack said.
“The fuel that feeds human trafficking is the money customers pay for commercial sex," McCormack said. "Operation Impact Demand is designed to curtail the supply of money going into the pockets of human traffickers.”
Operation Impact Demand, and its counterpart, Operation Closed to Trafficking, which targets illegal commercial sex establishments posing as massage parlors, are part of an overall strategy to drive Commercial Sexual Exploitation traffickers out of Cumberland County, McCormack said.
Friday’s operation resulted in more arrests than any previous operation, McCormack said.
“Since we began these operations in June of 2022, we have now arrested a total of 60 individuals," he said. "Although this is the sixth operation of this type to be conducted over the past year, investigators have found a high demand among individuals who would seek to exploit women remains. This is what attracts human traffickers to our community and this is why we will continue to conduct these operations.”
Future enforcement operations are planned throughout the county and those people that continue to prey on others will be arrested and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, McCormack said.
It is alleged that the following individuals sought to engage female escorts in sexual activity for money at a Hampden Township Hotel, according to McCormack:
- Timothy Loudin, 46, of Etters
- David Liccciardello, 74, of Hershey
- Johnny Palm, 37, of Elliottsburg
- Carlos Franco, 35, of Rush, CO
- Shawn Liberator, 49, of Newville
- Abdourah Issaka-Hamidou, 45, of Steelton
- Norman Decker, 47, of Bird In Hand
- Julio Maldonado, 20, of Whitehall
- James Davis, 51, of Enola
- John Bowden, 60, of Mechanicsburg
- Steven Bernard, 54, of Mechanicsburg
- Matthew Sibbach, 26, of Lemoyne
- Robert Morris, 43, of Jonestown
- Eric Braswell, 42, of Jarvisburg, NC
- Corey Johnson, 35, of Mechanicsburg
The defendants will be required to appear at District Court 09-3-04 for a preliminary hearing, according to McCormack.
