Lincoln Police say Crime-stoppers played a key role in the arrest of two men running a human trafficking operation

Lincoln police detective Benjamin Miller says Lincoln Crime-stoppers played a key role in apprehending two Lincoln man suspected of running a human trafficking operation.

41-year old Hersel Bradely and 59-year old Kurt Mortensen were arrested in early February.

It came after investigators followed up on a Lincoln Crime-stoppers tip for an online ad offering sexual favors.

“With those tips, it could be the smallest thing, we don’t always need every detail of whatever the crime is to come in and sometimes it may just be a license plate or a nickname, or a phone number, or pointing us toward, in this case an advertisement on the internet,” said detective Miller.

Investigators were following this particular group of people for around 6 months.

Miller says they have identified 3 to 6 young women between the ages of 19 and 23 who are victims.

Lincoln police partners with the Omaha Child Exploitation Task Force because Lincoln and Omaha are such popular human trafficking destinations due to the close proximity to the interstate.

“The two people who were arrested for pandering, as of this point, both have strong ties and connections to Omaha, they are going back and forth all the time, so it’s important to have that relationship with the group up in Omaha,” said Miller.

Miller says the prevalence of human trafficking right here in Lincoln would surprise most people.

He says younger girls are targeted for a variety of reasons.

“They are looking for people that are vulnerable. They are looking for girls that maybe have mental health issues, that are on the run, that are homeless, don’t have anywhere to go, that are drug addicted or alcohol dependent. That’s who they are generally targeting,” said Miller.

Miller says there is no doubt in his mind that they will identify more victims from this investigation in the future.

He says often times, the girls don’t want to help investigators right away out of fear of what will happen to them.

These cases take a lot of time and resources… Sometimes over a year in length, and they are hard on everyone involved.

“I can tell you that these cases are by far the most difficult cases to investigate and work. They are extremely time consuming. Just the trauma that these victims endure makes it extremely difficult to work through it,” said Miller.

Miller says he would like to see new legislation that bring harsher penalties for the buyers of sex.

State Senator Patty Pansing Brooks has introduced a measure that focuses less on punishing trafficking survivors and more on punishing the sex purchasers.