31-year-old Anthony Nelson, better known as “Flip,” of Tyler, Texas drove children across the state line so that they could engage in prostitution, according to an indictment obtained by Breitbart Texas. Nelson was already a convicted sex offender at the time.
On March 26 Nelson was indicted on sexual exploitation charges.
The indictment states that during November and December 2013, Nelson drove two minors across state lines with the intention of prostituting them. He was already a convicted sex offender, having been found guilty of Aggravated Assault of a Child in 2003.
A spokesman with the Tyler Police Department told Breitbart Texas, “We were contacted by Homeland Security and told that Nelson was possibly in our area. We did ultimately locate him in Tyler and arrested him.”
Homeland Security Investigation’s Operation Predator led the investigation into Nelson. Dani Dannett, a spokesperson from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), told Breitbart Texas that Operation Predator an international initiative to combat child pornography.
“We’ve always investigated these types of crimes, but Operation Predator is a blanket term for all crimes involving sex and minors,” Dannett said.
The program was started in response to child porn becoming increasingly popular and accessible online.
“Child porn used to be smuggled into the country through the mail or through airports,” Dannett said. “Now with the Internet, almost all material is online. Most of these crimes are international, since materials shared from the U.S. can be viewed around the world.” She noted that Operation Predator also gets involved in cases like Nelson’s, where adults travel transport minors with intentions of prostitution or creating pornography.
According to an ICE press release, Operation Predator has assisted in the arrests of 10,000 individuals for sex crimes against children since 2003.
Nelson’s case is still under investigation by various agencies including the Department of Homeland Security and HSI. If found guilty of the new charges against him, Nelson could spend life in prison.
Flip Indictment by BreitbartTexas
Follow Kristin Tate on Twitter @KristinBTate
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