SF police arrest trafficking suspects, seize guns in World Cup crackdown
Police said they seized guns, hit a Bryant Street brothel and made trafficking arrests in three World Cup-related cases across San Francisco.
San Francisco police made multiple arrests for trafficking a minor and seized illegal firearms in three World Cup-related sex trafficking investigations that stretched from a hotel sting to Bryant Street and Turk and Mason streets.
On June 12, officers ran a decoy operation after identifying a suspect who had posted on a commercial sex website and arranged to meet a decoy at a San Francisco hotel. The suspect was 25-year-old Tyler Marchok of San Francisco. He tried to flee, then discarded a jacket that contained a firearm with a loaded high-capacity magazine, another loaded magazine and a knife. Officers also recovered a second firearm from Marchok’s vehicle, along with seven additional high-capacity magazines, additional magazines and ammunition.
Two days later, on June 18, detectives served a search warrant at a suspected brothel on the 900 block of Bryant Street. Officers found evidence of sex work, cited two men for solicitation and booked 64-year-old Hong Yu into San Francisco County Jail on suspicion of operating a residential brothel.
The third case came on June 20, when officers stopped a reckless vehicle near Turk and Mason streets. Police later determined that the young woman in the back seat was a minor who had been participating in sex work, one of the arrests tied to trafficking a minor. The case was part of the same run of World Cup-related investigations.
Chief Derrick Lew said, “Human trafficking of any kind will never be tolerated in San Francisco,” and said officers would remain out in force during and after the World Cup. The Special Victims Unit worked with the Santa Clara Human Trafficking Task Force, BART Police, the San Francisco Sheriff’s Office and the FBI, and officers connected victims with social services.
Major events such as Super Bowl LX and the 2026 FIFA World Cup can create openings for traffickers by increasing travel, lodging and commercial activity. Marin County District Attorney Lori Frugoli has warned that traffickers can move along corridors such as Highway 101, while the FBI’s World Cup security plan, Operation Goal Kick, includes human trafficking and child exploitation among its priorities.
The World Cup will bring 104 matches over more than five weeks across the United States, Canada and Mexico, with roughly 6.5 million visitors.
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