Florida has arrested over 40 pedophiles — seven of whom are on Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) holds — as part of an undercover operation, state Attorney General James Uthmeier’s office confirmed.
Forty-eight individuals have been arrested following what Uthmeier’s office described as a “six-day undercover operation targeting online child predators.” A press release notes that this marks the “highest number of arrests ever made during this annual joint effort to protect Florida children from exploitation and abuse.”
“I know the state attorney here is going to be doing the Lord’s work to make sure that these people go away for absolutely as long as possible, and then those that shouldn’t have even been in this country, they’ll go back where they came from after they’ve served their time,” Uthmeier said during a press conference on this operation, as a handful arrested are foreign nationals with ICE detainers.
“To go after young kids, there is no defense, there is no justification, there is no excuse,” Uthmeier said. “It will not happen. It cannot happen in Florida, and we will work every day to make sure that we are getting every single one of these guys off the streets.”
“When I took the oath of office six months ago, I told my team going after child predators is priority one. We’ve got about 1,000 priorities, but it’s priority one,” he added.
Uthmeier revealed that much of the operation exposed child predators using Snapchat to target children. Per the press release:
Predators used various online chat and gaming platforms, including Snapchat, in an attempt to message and meet with minors, which were actually undercover officers. The Attorney General’s Office is suing Snapchat for knowingly and willingly violating Florida law, including the protections enshrined in last year’s HB3 and the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act. The lawsuit, filed in April, states that rather than obeying Florida law, Snapchat is actively deceiving parents about the risks associated with using the platform.
Overall, there are 153 charges as a result of this operation, including 34 for “Traveling to Meet a Minor for Illegal Sexual Conduct (34); five for Human Trafficking; 48 for Using a Computer to Solicit a Child for Sexual Conduct; 14 for Transmitting Material Harmful to a Minor,” and more.
