Authorities arrested 265 suspects during a large-scale crackdown on child exploitation crimes across Southern California.
The effort, dubbed “Operation Spring Cleaning,” was led by the Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles Regional ICAC Task Force, which is comprised of five counties — Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino, Santa Barbara, and Ventura.
The operation aims to identify and arrest child predators who use the internet to exploit children. Officers also work on rescuing the young victims targeted by the suspects.
The operation took place from April 6 to 19, and was carried out in two phases. The first phase involved undercover investigations across various social media platforms to track down and identify suspected child predators.
The second phase involved serving residential and arrest warrants across the five counties, targeting suspects engaged in the distribution of child sexual abuse material, online exploitation, and other crimes against children.
During the nearly two-week operation, 265 suspects were arrested for child exploitation-related crimes. Many of them “held positions of trust within their communities,” and some were either employed or placed in a role that gave them direct contact with children, LAPD said.
Authorities also rescued 27 children in connection with the massive crackdown.
Some of the crimes for which the 265 suspects were arrested include:
- 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
- Various violations of parole/probation conditions by convicted sex 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.”
Authorities did not release the identities of the suspects. The public is encouraged to report potential child sexual abuse activity and have the material removed by visiting takeitdown.ncmec.org.
“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.
