The police arrest 18 men during an online child luring operation

LAS VEGAS (KLAS) – Most of the 18 men arrested this summer in an undercover operation reported by the 8 News Now Investigators in early September 2024 believed they were speaking to boys and girls between the ages of 13 and 15 in the hope to become involved in sexual activity, according to police reports and court documents.

The sting, run by the Nevada Internet Crimes Against Children – including investigators from that task force and the FBI’s Child Exploitation Task Force, as well as the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, Federal Bureau of Investigation, North Las Vegas Police Department, Henderson Police Department, Homeland Security Investigations, U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigation and the Nevada Attorney General.

The men ranged in age from 22 to 60 and all spoke to decoys posing as minor children. All 18 men are charged with luring a minor into sex with a computer.

Three of these cases are illustrative of most of the eighteen, including:

• A man, 26, who thought he was meeting a 15-year-old girl with whom he was talking about sex in an explicit manner. He provided the decoy with photos of himself, but he told police, in his own defense, “I knew what this was,” and that he was there to “catch the sick SOB.” He told police he only said sexual things to the decoy because he was “playing along” and wanted to catch her “in another lie.” He agreed to take a polygraph and wrote a letter of apology during his police interrogation. He is now out of jail on $20,000 bail.
• Another man, 24, admitted to police that the boy he was talking to – another decoy – said he was 13. When he was arrested, he told police that he had taken condoms but “for sexual encounters with older men.” Additionally, according to the police report, he admitted to having an “addiction to masturbation,” and “he has a problem and needs help.” He initially told police he wanted to get caught and that he never intended to have sex with a 13-year-old. -old boy, but according to the police report, he eventually told them “he wanted to have sex with the 13-year-old boy.”
• The oldest of the arrested men, 60, spoke with a decoy who posed as the father of an 8-year-old girl. The police report states that the two discussed “sexual contact” with the girl, including removing her clothing, touching her “tiny body” and other disturbing acts. He told the decoy he wanted to “talk about his side of the story,” but that the interaction was “all fantasy,” according to the police report. However, the report also says he told the decoy, “Fantasy is safer than reality, but if you’re really real, let’s meet.” That man refused a polygraph.

Yet another man, 32, “was diagnosed as HIV positive two years ago,” the police report said. He is accused of using an online platform to speak to a decoy posing as a 15-year-old boy. The police report states: “He insists that his doctors have assured him that he is doing well.” He arranged to meet the boy at a predetermined location and told him, “Just lie down and I’ll do the rest (sic).”

At least one of the 18 defendants has a closed case in which prosecutors advised he would likely be indicted by a grand jury. Several others have had their cases transferred from North Las Vegas Justice Court to Clark County District Court, and some of them have pleaded guilty. Others have open court hearings in North Las Vegas District Court in October.