A seven-day undercover operation led by the Polk County Sheriff’s Office ended in 281 arrests, including 31 men accused of trying to meet children for sex, the agency said Friday. The sheriff’s office called the Polk County human trafficking operation “Polk Around and Find Out II.”
Of the arrests, 239 involved soliciting prostitutes, offering to commit prostitution, or aiding or transporting prostitutes. Eleven were for other offenses. The suspects face a total of 198 felony and 290 misdemeanor charges. Together, they carried 358 felony and 440 misdemeanor charges from earlier arrests, according to the sheriff’s office.
Agencies that joined the operation
Polk detectives worked with investigators from Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Attorney General’s Office of Statewide Prosecution, the Florida Department of Financial Services and the 10th Judicial Circuit State Attorney’s Office. Police departments in Auburndale, Bartow, Davenport, Lakeland, Lake City and Lake Wales took part. So did sheriff’s offices in Columbia, Hardee, Hillsborough, Marion and Osceola counties, the U.S. Army Criminal Investigations Division and the U.S. Secret Service.
What detectives found
Detectives said 117 suspects traveled to an undercover location to negotiate sex for money. Another 122 traveled to commit prostitution. Detectives and the groups One More Child and the Florida Department of Children and Families screened those 122 people to see whether others were trafficking or exploiting them. All were offered services, and the screening identified 11 human trafficking victims.
The 31 child predator suspects communicated online with undercover detectives who posed as children or as guardians of children. The sheriff’s office said the men were “very explicit” about what they wanted to do.
Seventeen suspects told detectives they work at local theme parks or resorts, including Disney World and Universal Studios. Seven of them were in the child predator group. In the first 12 child predator cases the sheriff’s office listed, suspects told detectives they worked in Toy Story Land, in food services, in human resources and on the Slinky Dog ride. One said he used to dress up as Mickey Mouse.
The sheriff’s office said 32 suspects were in the country illegally, from nine countries. It said 22 suspects collect public assistance, a combined $8,373 a month.
Jacksonville sailor among those charged
One of the child predator suspects is 24-year-old Dang Thai of Jacksonville, a Navy petty officer third class stationed in Jacksonville. Detectives said he messaged an undercover detective posing as a 14-year-old girl and told her he was 17. They said he suggested several times that he thought it was a sting, but still urged her to sneak out and meet him. They said he brought condoms.
Thai was charged with traveling to meet a minor, use of a computer to seduce a child and misrepresent age, use of a two-way communication device to commit a felony, and attempted lewd or lascivious battery on a minor.
Deputy and coach among the arrests
The sheriff’s office also arrested 40-year-old Eric Raymond of Winter Garden, an Orange County deputy for six years. He is assigned as a school resource deputy at Independence Elementary School. Detectives said he answered an online ad and agreed to pay $110 for sex. He was charged with one count of solicitation of a prostitute, a first-degree misdemeanor.
Sheriff Grady Judd said the operation also led to the arrest of a children’s football and cheerleading coach.
“It is extremely disturbing when we encounter nasty child predators like these who are very eager to have sex with children. This is why we conduct these types of undercover operations.”
Judd urged parents to monitor their children’s online activity and to know the adults in their children’s lives.
The sheriff’s list of child predator arrests includes suspects from Polk County and several nearby counties. Several lived in Davenport, and others came from Kissimmee, Apopka, Clermont, Tampa and Merritt Island. Most face charges of traveling to meet a minor, using a computer to seduce a child or solicit a guardian, using a two-way communication device to commit a felony, and attempted lewd or lascivious battery on a minor.
Arrests are accusations. The suspects are presumed innocent unless convicted in court.