Sex offender charged with visiting Boston to abuse minor

Victim found in man’s Ill. home

A convicted sex offender from a Chicago suburb has been charged with multiple felonies, including grooming and traveling to meet a child, after he allegedly visited the Boston area “numerous times” in the past year to engage in sex acts with an underage victim, officials in Illinois said Wednesday.

Weston Opas, 42, of Glenview, Ill., was also charged by the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office last week with being a felon in possession/use of a firearm with body armor and failure to report annually to the state’s sex offender registry, according to a statement from the Cook County Sheriff ’s Office.

Opas was ordered held without bail at the Cook County Jail. He is due back in court Nov. 16.

Detectives from the sheriff ’s office received a tip from law enforcement in the Boston area that Opas was linked to a missing juvenile and later learned that the two had allegedly met online last year through a gaming app and then remained in contact through text messaging, the statement said.

Opas allegedly knew the victim’s age but traveled to Boston repeatedly to engage in sexual acts with them, according to the sheriff ’s office.

Last week, detectives from the sheriff ’s office determined that the victim was allegedly living at Opas’s home and tried unsuccessfully to make contact with the victim, the statement said.

Investigators then obtained a search warrant for the home, where they rescued the victim, arrested Opas, and also found a gun, ammunition, and body armor, officials said.

The Illinois Department of Child and Family Services temporarily took custody of the victim until family members arrived in Chicago, according to the statement.

Opas was previously convicted in a child pornography case in Orange County, Fla., and in September he was charged with violating sex offender registration laws after he was found in a school zone in Cook County, the sheriff ’s office said.