(Image source from: azfamily.com)

Operation Naughty List, a sting by the Mesa Police Department took seventeen men into custody and imposed charges related to prostitution after allegedly soliciting sex from undercover detectives.

The Mesa Police Department said that the operation was part of its “continuous effort to reduce the demand that fuels humans sex trafficking from our country.” as per the police, the suspects range from 26 to 81 years in age.

Mesa PD’s Human Exploitation and Trafficking (HEat) Squad was formed in order “to combat the rising activity surrounding sex trafficking within the City of Mesa.”

According to Arizona’s criminal code, a mandatory jail sentence for at least 15 days is the conviction on a fist offence, a second conviction is a 30 day sentence and third is 60 days.

"A person who has previously been convicted of three or more violations of this section and who commits a subsequent violation of this section is guilty of a class 5 felony, shall be sentenced to serve not less than one hundred eighty consecutive days in jail and is not eligible for probation or suspension of execution of sentence until the entire sentence is served," according to the Arizona Revised Statutes.

By Shrithika Kushangi