The Lee County Sheriff’s Office located in Alabama worked in partnership with the Covenant Rescue Group, the Auburn Police Department, and the Opelika Police Department to carry out a two-day sting operation targeting child predators at a local hotel in Opelika. Undercover officers spoke online with multiple men who arranged to come to the hotel to have a sexual encounter with what they thought was a minor female.
Deputies were able to take a total of 10 men into custody, charging each of them with one count of child solicitation by computer, one count of traveling to meet a child for an unlawful sex act, and one count of prostitution with a minor. A report from Fox 5 Atlanta provided a list of the 10 individuals arrested and included their identities:
Cecil Leroy Carlton Sr., 49, of Opelika
Damarea Amir Yancey, 23, of Opelika
Kenneth Michael Hodges, 37, of Tuskegee
Yasuf Abdul Hannan Mansaray, 26, of Auburn
Cesar Lopez Ramirez, 19, of Auburn
Pablo Uscanga, 26, of Auburn
James Miles Mcray, 39, of Roanoke
Damien Prosser, 60, of Gainesville, Georgia
Petr V. Cholak, 48, of Inman, South Carolina
Tylik Marcel James, 27, of Union Springs
According to the report, officers booked all 10 individuals into the Lee County Detention Facility with bond set for $130,000 for each person. A 20-year-old man from Auburn was given additional charges. Deputies charged Treveontae Jamal Hutchinson with two counts of child solicitation by computer, two counts of traveling to meet a child for an unlawful sex act, and two counts of prostitution with a minor.
Officers booked him into the Lee County Detention Center on a $260,000 bond. While the authorities have been fairly transparent about the results of the operation, there is still quite a bit of information that remains unknown as of this writing, such as the name or location of the hotel where the arrests were made.
Officials have also not disclosed details regarding what platforms or apps the men used to communicate with undercover officers. Lee County Sheriff Jay Jones placed emphasis on the importance of community partnerships in keeping children safe from online predators, releasing a statement explaining some critical aspects of the mission and those who worked with them on it.
“The Covenant Rescue Group’s stated mission is to fight human trafficking and child exploitation along with assisting law enforcement with training and partnership operations to identify those who victimize children,” Jones went on to say. “We stand with them in this effort and will continue to engage in actions to identify and apprehend those who would place our children at risk.”
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On a post about the story shared on Facebook, people commented their support for the groups who worked together to nail these child predators and to get them off the streets. “Thank you to the Opelika police department and GBI officers for taking this seriously! Protecting children and arresting child predators is exactly what we the American people demand,” one woman wrote. “Great job !!! Thank you for saving these children,” another said.
Featured Image: screenshot from embedded video