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The chief executive of the classified ad website Backpage.com was arrested Thursday on pimping charges, part of a broad crackdown led by state Atty. Gen. Kamala Harris, who criticized the website for profiting from the sex trafficking of adults and children.

Carl Ferrer is shown in a booking photo released Oct. 6, 2016, by the Texas Office of the Attorney General.
Carl Ferrer is shown in a booking photo released Oct. 6, 2016, by the Texas Office of the Attorney General.

Carl Ferrer was taken into custody in Houston after arriving on a flight from Amsterdam, according to a statement from Texas Atty. Gen. Ken Paxton, whose office joined in the criminal inquiry.

The two men who founded the Dallas company in 2004 and remain its owners, Michael Lacey and James Larkin, were charged along with Ferrer in a criminal complaint filed Sept. 26 in Sacramento County Superior Court. All three are accused of conspiracy to commit pimping, a felony.

Ferrer is also accused of multiple counts of pimping and pimping minors, according to court papers.

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