Florida Police have taken 12 suspects into custody for trying to engage in sexual activity. This was part of an operation against predators.
According to the Citrus County Sheriff’s office, Operation Lucky Strike was launched to catch cyber predators trying to have sex in children’s homes.
Law enforcement officers posed as minors while conducting the operation on several websites, waiting for online messages. Despite being aware of the child’s age, the suspects still sent explicit messages, photos, and detailed requests for various sexual activities to the child.
Some suspects drove more than an hour to believe they were meeting minors for sexual activity. They were arrested by law enforcement officers upon their arrival.
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12 minors were arrested by authorities in Florida for trying to have sex with them
To arrest the suspects, the Citrus County Sheriff’s Office collaborated with the U.S. Secret Service and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
Citrus County Sheriff Mike Prendergast stated in a statement that “these sick and abhorrent individuals prey upon children to their own perverted profit.” “These people knowingly send vile, sexually explicit messages online to minors and travel hours to meet with children with the intent to perform these repulsive acts, if not worse.”
He said, “Preying upon children is absolutely deplorable.” “I am extremely proud of the partnership our agency had with the law enforcement agencies that helped us bring these criminals to justice. It is a success if operations like Lucky Strike remove one predator from the streets. This time we have stopped 12 criminals, so ‘Lucky Strike is a huge success.”
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Law enforcement officers posed as minors to solicit information via online messages.
In connection with the operation, Cristian Gabriel Rosado–Marrero and Devin Michael Cordeiro, Jeff D. Adams; Sean Robert Mooney, Robert Allan Rankin; Mathew Leathers; Glenn Cunningham; James Patrick Lake; Mark Philip Werner Lovric. Alex Anthony Francis. Ralph Joseph Perkins were also taken into custody.
Officials stated that 11 suspects were detained for trying to have sex minors. Rankin was also arrested for possessing a controlled substance and paraphernalia, and Mooney was driving Rankin to the meeting place.
