‘OPERATION SAFE ZONE’ targets online predators
EL CENTRO — A months-long multiagency task force operation targeting adults who use the internet and web-based social media applications to lure minors for sex is being credited with the recent arrests of 50 individuals.
Nearly half of those arrested were out-of-county residents, including individuals from San Diego and Riverside counties, as well as Yuma, Ariz. and Mexicali.
“The suspects were adult males willing to meet with 12- to 13-year-old females with the intent to commit molestation and other sexually-related crimes,” said county Sheriff Ray Loera.
The arrests, made between February and November as part of “Operation Safe Zone,” were announced Monday by the Imperial County Sheriff’s Office and its partner agencies during a press conference.
In some instances, actual victims were involved, while other cases involved law enforcement officials posing online as minors.
None of the individuals arrested had a previous arrest or conviction connected to sexual crimes involving minors, officials said.
As part of the “proactive” arrests, authorities had served numerous search warrants on suspects’ vehicles, laptops, cellular phones and electronic devices, including two GoPro cameras, Loera said.
Authorities are also in the process of determining whether any of those arrested will face federal charges.
The Sheriff’s Office indicated that it had intended to announce the operation’s success at a prior date, but postponed the announcement as a result of its making successive arrests, most recently as last week.
Operation Safe Zone is in many ways a continuation of a similar multiagency effort — “Operation Desert Guardian — which nabbed nine individuals over the course of nine days in March 2016 for sex crimes related to minors.
“That was kind of like the infancy stages of this type of work that the Sheriff’s Office is doing today,” said ICSO Lt. Jimmy Duran.
Authorities on Monday also emphasized how crucial it is for parents and guardians to keep a vigilant eye on the online and social media activities of their children in order to protect them from online predators.
“You have to know what’s going on with kids’ phones and tablets,” Loera said.
San Diego Police Department detective Sgt. Dale Flamand was even more adamant about parents exercising a great degree of control over their children’s electronic devices and social media activity.
“You’re handing your child — when you hand them that smartphone or tablet — a doorway to the world,” Flamand said. “You’re giving them access to the good, the bad and the ugly.” Parents need to become proficient with all of the different types of social media applications currently available for electronic devices that allow its users to connect with other users, regardless of location, Flamand said.
In particular, parents need to know the passwords for their children’s electronic devices, social media accounts, how to operate various social media applications and perform a search history of applications, websites and browsers, Flamand said.
“Until they are 18 years old, that phone belongs to the parents, not the child,” he said.
Flamand is the task force commander of the Internet Crimes Against Children task force based in San Diego and which also includes law enforcement officials from Imperial and Riverside counties.
Operation Safe Zone was conducted with its assistance and included the participation of the county District Attorney’s Office, U.S. Marshals Service, Homeland Security Investigations and El Centro Sector Border Patrol.
The regional ICAC is made possible through a federal grant and offers equipment and training to its affiliates on how to conduct investigations targeting online predators.
Compared to last year, the regional ICAC has seen a 200 percent increase in the number of cases involving adults attempting to exploit minors for sexual purposes over the internet, Flamand said.
Parents should be able to find a wealth of resources online that can help them further familiarize themselves with popular and discreet applications, some of which allow its users to obscure their online activity.
One such recommended resource includes the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children’s Net Smartz Kids program (www.netsmartzkids.org), which provides information and resources that can help protect children from online predators.
“We can only do so much to protect your children,” Flamand said.