Two Arrested in Durham for Human Trafficking of a 17-Year-Old Runaway
Authorities said the teen had run away from her home in upstate New York in February.
According to officials, a friend of the girl spotted her in an advertisement on an adult website and contacted the Polaris Project with the National Human Trafficking Resource Center, and the Raleigh Police Department.
Raleigh police officers were able to track down the teen to a Durham address. Durham police investigators, along with an agent from Homeland Security, went to the address in the 1500 block of Ellis Road and arrested 26-year-old Mark Brown.
Investigators also arrested 24-year-old Fatmiyah Tunis of Corona, Queens, New York at a motel in southern Durham.
Authorities were also able to find the 17-year-old girl in good health.
Brown and Tunis are both charged with human trafficking of child and promoting prostitution of a minor. They were both placed in the Durham County Jail under $750,000 bonds.