The Polk County, Florida, Sheriff’s Office has arrested nearly 160 human trafficking suspects, some cases involving children, including 25 illegal aliens from Cuba, Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, and Venezuela.
The undercover sting, known as Operation Autumn Sweep, began at the start of the month and ultimately resulted in the arrests of 157 suspects for soliciting prostitutes, offering to commit prostitution, or aiding and abetting prostitutes.
Three of the suspects were allegedly involved in traveling to sexually assault minors.
Meanwhile, 25 of the suspects are illegal aliens, 26 are married, nine are on taxpayer-funded government assistance, 131 of the suspects are from outside of Polk County, Florida; three were either active-duty military or veterans, and three worked at Disney World.
The oldest suspect arrested is 61, while the youngest suspect is 15 years old.
“The approach of Hurricane Milton caused us to end our investigation earlier than planned, but it’s still amazing that in such a short amount of time we were able to put 157 people in jail, and three child predators,” Sheriff Grady Judd said.
“Sixteen percent of the suspects we arrested are here illegally, but were offered free medical, food, travel, and housing, compliments of the U.S. taxpayers — meanwhile hurricane victims are still waiting, and praying for help,” Judd said.
One of the illegal aliens arrested is 30-year-old Ezequiel Mejia of Mexico, who first arrived in the United States about 10 years ago. According to police, Mejia sent social media messages to an undercover detective who, at the time, was posing as a 14-year-old girl.
Police allege that Mejia told the undercover detective that he wanted to be her boyfriend but that he could get into “very big trouble” if he acted on anything. Mejia, police said, drove to an undercover location to meet up with who he thought was the girl and brought condoms with him.
Mejia told police he has a wife and a 7-year-old daughter. He has been charged with traveling to meet a minor, use of a two-way communication device to commit a felony, attempted lewd battery on a minor, and resisting arrest.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.