Sex sting leads to 101 arrests

Orlando community activist Ahmad Saleem drove to a Clermont-area house intending to meet a 12-year-old girl he had been chatting with online for sex in a vehicle with a specialty “Invest in Children” license plate, authorities said Tuesday.

But when the door opened, there were no children in sight. Instead, detectives quickly brought Saleem to the ground and arrested him. Saleem, founder of the Saleem Academy, an organization dedicated to empowering Muslim youths globally, was one of the101people arrested in an undercover cybercrime prostitution and child-sex sting by the Lake and Polk county sheriff’s offices.

Lake County Sheriff Gary Borders and Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd spelled out details of the two-week sting, which started on May 18, at a news conference surrounded by large boards filled with defendants’ mug shots. Seventy-nine people were busted in the prostitution operation and 22 in the child-sex sting, officials said.

He said the operation used chat rooms and online forums to identify people seeking illicit sex. The first phase targeted people looking to have sex with minors from 10 to 14. Among those arrested was Saleem, 22, who faces felony charges.

A Polk County sheriff’s detective posed as a girl online and talked with Saleem, who said he wanted to have sex with the girl and then traveled to Lake County for an expected meeting, authorities said.

Saleem was also the Orlando regional coordinator for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a nonprofit dedicated to challenging stereotypes of Islam and Muslims and defending civil liberties. The organization said he worked there a short time before leaving his post.