UCO Student Arrested On Prostitution-Related Charges

Undercover agents busted several alleged pimps, human traffickers and prostitutes during a sting operation last week. Among those arrested was a local college student, who is alleged to have been operating a brothel out of his off-campus apartment.

Ali Hussain Al-Yousuf, a student at UCO, is accused of turning his apartment into a house of prostitution.

According to court records, undercover agents responded to an ad for sex on Backpage.com on the evening of January 8, 2015. The officer was instructed to meet the woman at Al-Yousuf's residence at the Villas at Stonebridge Apartments located 157 Stonebridge Blvd.

Neither Al Yousuf nor anyone else answered the door Wednesday when News 9 knocked. But records show, when the agent arrived at the apartment last Thursday, a woman offered to have sex with him for $150.

Officers with Oklahoma City Police Vice Unit and the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics' Human Trafficking Unit then rushed in to arrest the alleged prostitute. Also according to records, they found Al-Yousuf hiding in the kitchen pantry.

Anti-prostitution activist Brian Bates, of JohnTV.com, said one of the things that concerned him so much about this case is that Al-Yousuf is relatively young, he's 24.

"He is educated," said Bates, "he obviously has access to money, based on where he is living, and he is going to college."

Bates said this showed that prostitution does not just affect one demographic.

"Most people think they know who is involved in prostitution and they think it is people on the other side of town," Bates explained. "They think it is people with no education, people that are desperate and people that have no other alternative."

But Bates believes that just about anyone can fall victim -- "UCO students certainly fall within that realm," Bates noted.

In the last 10 years, Bates said he's reviewed three cases of UCO students involved in prostitution, and plenty more cases of young people involved in the illicit behavior.

"It should be a wake-up call," Bates emphasized,"anyone is susceptible to this sort of crime."

Al-Yousuf is out of jail on a $2,500 bond.

As for the alleged prostitute, no record of her arrest could be found.