LAKELAND, Fla. — Detectives with the Lakeland Police Department arrested a 48-year-old Tampa man this week after he arranged to travel to the city and pay for a sexual encounter with a girl he believed was 14 years old.
On July 14, Fozi Nagi Al-Zokari started a text conversation with an undercover Lakeland police detective. He thought he was messaging a parent who was trying to prostitute their 14-year-old daughter. The two kept communicating for several days. During those messages, Al-Zokari agreed to come to Lakeland and pay $200 for sex with the girl he believed was 14.
Around 10 p.m. on July 22, Al-Zokari showed up at the arranged meeting spot and was taken into custody. Officers searched him and found $300 in cash, two unopened packs of condoms, and plastic baggies containing methamphetamine.
In the back seat of his vehicle they found a black suitcase. Inside it was a bag holding several sexual toys and one large hatchet.
Al-Zokari was taken to the Polk County Jail and booked on charges of human trafficking forced sex trade – victim under 18, a life felony; use of a computer to solicit a parent or guardian, a third-degree felony; traveling to meet using a computer to solicit a guardian, a second-degree felony; unlawful use of a two-way communication device, a third-degree felony; possession of methamphetamine, a third-degree felony; and possession or use of drug paraphernalia, a first-degree misdemeanor.
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