Mapping hidden networks to expose what's concealed.
Trafficking networks leave patterns. Lumina uses open-source intelligence collection to map those patterns into structured leads — helping identify potential victims and connecting the networks behind them to law enforcement.
Trafficking hides in plain sight
Networks that move people leave a footprint — in advertising, in business filings, in the digital exhaust of daily operations. That footprint is scattered, easy to miss, and rarely connected to the next one. Closing that gap is intelligence work.
Fragments, not files
A listing here, a review there, a shared phone number three states away. No single piece looks like much on its own.
Buried under volume
Law enforcement is stretched thin, and open-source signal is easy to lose without a dedicated team looking for it.
Patterns, once mapped
Correlated across locations and time, fragments become a structure — ownership, movement, and the network behind it.
From open-source signal to a structured lead
Lumina's process is deliberately linear: identify what's publicly available, structure it into intelligence, and coordinate with the people who hold the authority to act.
Analysts gather publicly available information tied to suspected trafficking fronts — business listings, advertising patterns, ownership records, and digital footprints — within legal and ethical standards.
Individual data points are correlated against one another to surface connections — shared addresses, phone numbers, operators, and locations — revealing the shape of a network.
Structured findings are packaged into a lead and referred to federal, state, or local law enforcement partners for verification and response. Referral, not action, is the deliverable.
Illicit massage businesses
In the United States, Lumina's work centers on illicit massage businesses, or IMBs — a well-documented front for trafficking operating in strip malls and storefronts nationwide, largely in plain sight of the communities around them.
Lumina builds structured intelligence on these networks: the businesses, the operators behind them, and the connections between locations. That intelligence is referred to law enforcement partners, turning open-source research into leads investigators can act on.
In 2024, illicit massage businesses ranked behind only escort services among venues of sex trafficking reported to the National Human Trafficking Hotline — 1,274 situations to 1,278. Effectively a tie for first among the nation's most-reported trafficking venues.
Venue data: National Human Trafficking Hotline, 2024 statistics, humantraffickinghotline.org. Storefront estimate: Polaris Project, "Human Trafficking in Illicit Massage Businesses," 2018.
Referrals, not surprises
If you're an investigator or analyst, here's exactly what a Lumina referral contains — and how it reaches you — before you commit any time to it.
Location dossier
Address, business names, licensing and registration status.
Ownership trail
Registered agents, shell entities, cross-state filings — all public record.
Advertising patterns
Posting history and cross-platform advertising patterns.
Network connections
Linked locations, shared operators, correlated addresses.
Source log
Every data point cited to its public origin — no unattributed claims.
How it reaches you
Lead packages are delivered through an encrypted channel to verified agency addresses only. We confirm the recipient before anything is sent. Nothing is published, posted, or shared elsewhere.
Analysts are available for follow-up questions on scope and sourcing, within the same open-source frame. We do not conduct interviews, surveillance, or contact of any kind.
Getting started
Email partners@luminaintelligence.org from your agency address with your name, agency, and jurisdiction of interest. No MOU required to receive a referral; one is available for agencies whose policy requires it.
Request a referralOne identifier, four storefronts
Three storefronts across two metro areas. Separate registrations, separate agents, nothing remarkable on paper.
A shared identifier in the public records of all three connects them — and traces to a fourth location in a neighboring state. Correlated ownership filings point to one operator behind all four.
Four disconnected complaints became one structured lead, referred to a state task force.
Illustrative composite drawn from publicly documented network patterns. Identifying details altered or removed.We know what we do with data
- This website sets no cookies, runs no analytics, and loads no third-party trackers. We don't know who visits — and we prefer it that way.
- Everything Lumina collects is open-source and publicly available. No breaches, no pretexting, no purchased data, no scraping of private or protected accounts.
- Individuals appear in our work only through public records tied to the businesses themselves. Lead packages go to verified law enforcement recipients only — never published, never sold, never shared outside the referral.
- Source records are retained only as long as operationally and legally necessary, then destroyed. Anything that could identify a potential victim is minimized and shared only with the receiving agency.
Questions about our practices? partners@luminaintelligence.org
Lumina operates strictly within open-source, publicly available information. Findings are never acted on directly — every lead is referred to a law enforcement partner, and the decision to investigate or intervene rests with them alone.
Every referral recipient is verified before anything is sent. Leads go to confirmed agency addresses only — never to unverified individuals, never posted publicly, never sold.
Lumina does not contact subjects or businesses under review, and does not act on findings directly — every lead is referred to law enforcement, and the decision to investigate further rests with them. Collection methods are limited to what's legally authorized, and evolve as networks adapt.
Lumina Intelligence is the domestic OSINT project of That We May Go (TWMG), a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that partners with law enforcement to identify victims of human trafficking and exploitation, gather intelligence, and support intervention — across the United States, Latin America, and Southeast Asia.
Every lead Lumina builds serves the same by-with-through model TWMG carries into the field: working alongside law enforcement, never in place of it.
Get in touch
Law enforcement partners, potential collaborators, and supporters can reach the team directly.