POLK COUNTY, Fla. (WSVN) — Florida authorities have arrested 17 people in a month-long child porn sting.
The Polk County Sheriff’s Office announced the arrests of the suspects Friday morning. The arrests stem from a month-long operation called Guardians of Innocence IV: Fall Haul.
Detectives said that among those arrested were a man who was caught while trying to meet a child for sexual favors, two men who were trying to get nude photos from two different 13-year-old girls, and another suspect who admitted that if he didn’t look at child pornography, he would sexually batter children.
Detectives said one of the suspects had hundreds of images of child pornography with children of various ages, including a child as young as 8 to 12 months old.
“The people arrested during this operation prey on the most innocent and vulnerable among us—our children,” said Polk Sheriff Grady Judd. “The undercover detectives who investigate these crimes have to see things that nobody should have to see, and no child should have to experience. Each one of these arrests has removed a predator from our streets, and the internet.”
The suspects range in age from 19 years old to 77 years old.
The suspects face a total of 626 charges, including 624 felonies and two misdemeanors, and the combined prior criminal histories of all of the men includes 114 felonies and 71 misdemeanors.
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