I am detective Natalie Knorr I am a former detective with the human exploitation trafficking unit within the Mesa Police Department known as heat several years ago we were called by Patrol officers who responded to a hotel where a missing juvenile had been located they had suspicions when they had contacted that juvenile that she was prostituting being forced into it so they had notified the heat unit we responded we had spoken with that juvenile at the time and she disclosed that she was being trafficked identified how she had gotten into it how she had met the trafficker and gave us a little bit more information we started doing research she had had a phone with her a couple of those texting apps were on her phone and from there we obtained those phone numbers we were able to identify several ads that were posted on some of those websites that were known for prostitution also known to promote trafficking and at that time we then linked her phone number and her ads to several other unidentified females and so we kind of established a time frame of how long this might have been going on and then looking a little bit further into those we sound some familiar wording emojis at the time were very big and kind of establishing then trying to identify who the other females were the whole investigation was approximately about a year by the time we established enough probable cause we had interviewed we ended up with a total of about four juveniles four adult females and all who had stated that they were recruited through the clothing line through the modeling through those warehouse parties and the parties on the cap on the college and then for others that we had identified that we couldn't prove we didn't have information that they were being trafficked however we had enough to believe that they had been well I can't force nothing I can't force you to go be your own wonders and go do great things I can't force it if you want to go off and get money a certain way well follow me you told me you do music videos you have to see Lu thing going on and it turns into something else I never ever ever ever wanted to do that and you knew that we located where he was at um we had arrested him um we had notified all we tried to keep in contact with those victims um that we had established that we had spoken with and everything and keep them updated with what was going on uh the hard part with the victims is that they like to disassociate themselves from the situation and that so they would move out of state A lot of times they might not return our phone calls but then it was also building that trust up uh they were very fearful of him they weren't sure what he would be capable of and so we had to build up that trust within that they could believe us and what we would say and we could help them out he acknowledged um that he was trying to make some money um that he had his clothing line um some of the girls he claimed that did it on their own uh however we had all those messages is that he would actually provide like what how much to pay for a certain time things that they would do we had several of the victims disclosed to us that he had actually taught them little tricks of the trade in a sense of what they could do to try to get more money and try to earn uh you know shorter time frame with those persons that were looking for a prostitute some of the girls were had been beaten up by him if they didn't want to go through a deal or if they didn't want to work for him anymore one of his first girls that we had identified later on in the investigation actually had almost had her back broken by him during once one time when she tried to get away from him the last time that when she was with him they ended up moving out of state he wanted her to work out there she didn't want to she was being very adamant not to he had been out doing something she stated to us that she realized he came back home his ankle was hurt and she just took that as her opportunity to run and she ran she found somebody flagged him down they took out her out of that area and then got her with the police officers and then shortly after that we had realized that he had recruited somebody else out in that state also majority um there will be some type of physical force it might not be every single girl that the trafficker has recruited a lot of times they try to make an example of one their main girl that they know will bring money in for them that they know the other girls might trust and other times they just try to pose more of the boyfriend this person had tried to pose as a boyfriend initially and then once he knew that he had them under his control then he would go ahead and start using that Force we were going to go to trial on the case um with there were approximately about 11 counts total between an illegal Enterprise running a legal business child sex trafficking sex trafficking and then from there he would be looking at if we did the trial at least 32 years minimum for a prison sentence and instead he took a plea offer which the victims had agreed upon we always keep them in the loop with the court process and it was a 10-year sentence he was held within the courts while the case was going through the court system and then at that point he was still speaking with a few people that he knew he ended up persuading this one female that he was friends with that at the time it appeared he was trying to get her trying to recruit her um into his little crew and Main trafficked and she ended up posting his bond which was about a 25 000 Bond he got out on bond um started then contacting the victims of the case and persuading them to drop the charges you've lied will you do that yes okay then you'll be left alone I'll have you and somebody take you out to lunch dinner and buy your outfit and give you a ride if you needed like twice and then after that you'll be left alone forever he had offered them dinner some clothes and then a ride um he stated that he would personally take him down to the courts and then have them tell the courts that they didn't want to be a victim they didn't want to file the charges anymore thankfully one of the victims I'm talking about building that trust had reached out to us um it was probably about 11 maybe almost midnight one night had called myself called a fellow detective and told us what was going on said that they had the phone call and then she did a phenomenal job of getting that conversation recorded with him and so we had all that proof for the attorneys so he got picked up again on those additional charges of witness tampering for those that being younger somebody even as an adult age starting with the social media and things like that the disadvantage with social media nowadays is that everybody wants those numbers they want those friends they want all those higher you know number of people who like them people who see them and links on their accounts and that the difficult part is majority of those people do not know who everybody is so one of the main things is we go around and speak and talk with parents kids you know college age students and things like that is to know exactly know all your friends on the social media there are those who oppose maybe as a 16 17 year old boy or girl there's a lot of times the men the boys are trafficked also and it's once they realize those people that are looking those traffickers those that are trying to exploit any of the juveniles or even anybody for money feeling that they could get money make money off of that person they're going to look for when they're down are they missing certain things in their life are they having a bad day is there some turmoil going on and most people will post just almost everything about their life and once they see that they'll start reaching out and start friending them start being nice to them oh I can help you out with this oh I've got a place to stay or hey are you interested sometimes if it's a modeling type of thing are you interested in coming to this party will you try you know modeling for me in a sense and then once they kind of built that trust with them and establish more of a friendship sometimes they may even try posing like a boyfriend type of thing also they'll start meeting up and then they realize that they have that person connected most of the traffickers that I've interviewed that I've arrested over the years working there have said once they knew that person has done some type of a sexual act a prostitution deal they need that they had them hooked and then speaking with all of those victims they said once they after their first deal they just felt so sick to their stomach after it and then they felt like it was all on them they had nothing else to do or no other choice to make I would say um with parents um or even whether if it's a juvenile even if you have a kid that's off to college or something like that is to maintain that contact with them and then maintain some type of contact with their social media a lot of times parents are not aware of how many types of apps the amount of kids might have on their phone either someone having especially if they're under the age of 18 having some type of parental control on that but then also monitoring see what they're posting online see what kind of people are liking it and things like that are they going to some of these private groups are they having some private chats and things like that just to be more aware and have that open conversation this happens anywhere it happens in Mesa and it happens in Phoenix it happens every aware that you can think of and it can be anyone any young boy young girl adult boy those that might be 18 they lose a job they're out on the street or something like that that's a very easy way to get recruited into trafficking