During a massive crackdown on child exploitation charges in Southern California, authorities detained 265 people.
The Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles Regional ICAC Task Force, which is made up of five counties—Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino, Santa Barbara, and Ventura—led the initiative, which was called “Operation Spring Cleaning.”
The goal of the program is to find and apprehend child predators who take advantage of youngsters online. Officers also attempt to rescue the juvenile victims that the accused have targeted.
The procedure was conducted in two stages between April 6 and April 19. In order to find and identify potential child predators, the first phase involves conducting undercover investigations on a variety of social media platforms.
Targeting suspects involved in the distribution of child sexual abuse materials, online exploitation, and other offenses against minors, the second phase involves serving arrest and residence warrants throughout the five counties.
265 people were taken into custody for crimes including child exploitation during the roughly two-week operation. According to LAPD, several of them “held positions of trust within their communities,” and some were hired or assigned to a job that allowed them to interact directly with children.
As part of the huge operation, authorities also managed to rescue 27 children.
The following are some of the offenses for which the 265 suspects were taken into custody:
- Possession, distribution or production of child sexual abuse material
- Lewd acts with a child
- Meeting a minor for lewd purposes
- Contact or attempt to contact a minor for sex
- Lewd and lascivious acts with a minor under 14 years of age
- Human Trafficking
- Oral copulation with a minor
- Indecent exposure
- Child annoying
- Sending obscene matter to a child for sexual gratification
- Failure to register as a convicted sex offender
Numerous parole/probation infractions committed by convicted sexual offenders
“These arrests underscore the importance of vigilance and cross-agency collaboration in safeguarding children from individuals who use their trusted positions to exploit and harm the most vulnerable,” LAPD said. “The united efforts of the LA ICAC Task force and the community, in the fight against the online sexual exploitation of children, will surely assist in keeping the child predators at bay and allow our children to explore the internet without fear.”
The suspects’ identities were not made public by the authorities. The public is urged to visit takeitdown.ncmec.org to report possible child sexual abuse and have the content taken down.
“By reporting the potential child sexual abuse activity, you are giving a potential victim a voice when they are often silenced due to circumstance,” LAPD said.
