140+ Arrested in California Online Sex Abuse Operation

California officials arrested 141 individuals on Wednesday in connection with an online sex abuse ring.

“The weeklong “Protect the Innocent” sting operation led to the arrest and charge of individuals from Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino, Ventura, and Santa Barbara counties, according to the Washington Examiner. The Los Angeles Regional Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force led the operation,” Just the News reports.

Arrested individuals face charges such as statutory rape, pimping, disorderly conduct, sexual abuse of a minor, and possession, distribution, or manufacture of child sex abuse materials.

“Multiple residential search warrants were served throughout the five counties, in addition to arrest warrants, which focused on child predators,” authorities said in the release.

BREAKING:

141 Pedophiles Arrested in Massive Southern California Bust

110 arrested for possession, distribution or manufacturing of child pornographyhttps://t.co/CdCMPmXhQm

— An Open Secret (@AnOpenSecret) September 15, 2022

"Authorities arrested 141 people across Southern California — most of them on suspicion of possessing child sexual abuse material — as part of a weeklong operation targeting online abuse, officials said Wednesday."https://t.co/xNPoofCSNJ

— Justin Coleman 🎈📌 (@DemopJ) September 15, 2022

From The Washington Examiner:

The arrests followed an increase in online child sexual abuse reports, which coincided with the COVID-19 pandemic.

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“When we first started in 2004, we started LAPD’s ICAC because we received 458 tips that year,” Capt. Jeff Bratcher told the Los Angeles Times. “In 2019 that number rose to 8,500. In 2020, 2021, both years, were over 24,000. This year so far, we’re over 25,000, so we should end the year with over 36,000 cybertips. And each one of these tips was one more potential child victim.”

Law enforcement officials followed tips from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and Crimestoppers.com, and they conducted compliance checks on those required to register as a sex offender who had a history of crime on the internet.

Among those detained, 110 were arrested on suspicion of possessing, distributing, or manufacturing child sexual abuse material, according to the news release. Eighteen people were arrested on charges of parole or probation violations, six were arrested on charges of sexual abuse of a minor, two of statutory rape, and two of pimping. Three people were arrested on charges of disorderly conduct.

Law enforcement urged parents to help monitor what their children do online.

“Parents are used to seeing children with an electronic device in their hands,” LAPD said in the release.

“Most of the time this enriches our children’s lives and helps with their education; however, parents and caregivers have to know that there can be danger awaiting their children on the internet.”