Thirty-one internet child predators have been arrested over a six-day period, Orange County Sheriff Jerry Demings announced Tuesday.
Demings, who made the announcement at a press conference said, the operation was part of a state-wide effort to locate and identify people who use the web to sexually exploit children and travel to meet minors for the purpose of sexual activity.
Operation SpiderWeb II, as the Orange County operation was called, took place during October 22-October 28, and resulted in the arrests of 31 men between the ages of 18 years and 59 years.
OCSO Detective Phil Graves explained that between six to eleven undercover officers, each day, posing mostly as children, responded to ads placed by the defendants who agreed to meet with the “underage” individuals at a clandestine location in East Orange County. When the men showed up thinking they were meeting minors, instead they found a takedown team and were taken into custody.
Graves said all the suspects are from the Central Florida area with the exception of one individual who was in the area on business from Washington State.
Asked whether the 31 arrests were an unusual number over the one-week period, Graves said that it wasn’t, as staff resources are dedicated to working on such crimes on a daily basis.
Demings added that Operation SpiderWeb II was somewhat different in that, many agencies were involved including Polk, Lake, Osceola, Sarasota, Volusia, Orlando Police Department and Oviedo Police Department. He pointed out too that, a similar operation around the same time last year had led to the arrest of 50 people.
Demings attempted to defuse suspicions that, the recent spate of unprecedented press briefings – three over the past week announcing the outcomes of various operations – were politically motivated.
“It’s not political…. I am still the Sheriff,” said Demings. “And although I am running for Sheriff, I still have to do my job… this Agency still has to do its job—arrest violators of the law.”
