A 23-year-old man was detained in Chandler and accused of kidnapping a 14-year-old Kansas girl, authorities said Tuesday.
Cristian Leonardo Caal Mucu was arrested at work in Chandler on July 31, according to a video released on social media by the Chandler Police Department.
He faces charges of kidnapping, sexual misconduct with a minor, and sexual exploitation.
How were Chandler police able to find man accused of kidnapping Kansas teen?
Chandler police said the Finney County Sheriff’s Department in Kansas contacted them on July 31 after learning that the teen was in Arizona.
According to ABC15, deputies in Kansas tracked the teen’s cell phone to an Extended Stay America hotel in Chandler after she went missing on July 20.
The Chandler Police Department’s Human Exploitation and Trafficking (HEAT) Unit located the girl in the motel within two hours and the suspect minutes later while working nearby.
Officers from the department’s Criminal Apprehension and Street Crimes Units arrested Caal Mucu.
“Our unit’s goal was to rescue the juvenile, take care of her, and get her to where she needed to be,” Chandler PD Sgt. Aaron Lowe, who heads the HEAT Unit, said in the social media video.
Caal Mucu is a Guatemalan citizen who has been living in the United States illegally, according to ABC15.
According to the TV station, during an interview with authorities, Caal Mucu admitted to transporting the teen to Arizona and that he had sexual relations with her several times.
“Anytime that we can identify and take a predator out of the community that’s looking to offend a child, that’s our mission, that’s our goal every day,” Lowe said. “And this one, we were able to not only rescue the female … but to take an offender into custody and get him off the streets is mission success as well.”
He was ordered to be jailed on a $50,000 cash-only bond, according to ABC15.
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