On Wednesday, the Prosecutor’s office said that thanks to the efforts of the police had caught 16 men from new York, new Jersey and Philadelphia, who tried to persuade children to have sex in different social networks. Among those arrested was a high school teacher in the Bronx (new York), a COP from new Jersey, dental hygienist, Manager of a Bank branch, barbershop owner, financier provider of Internet services, the drivers of Uber and Lyft, two deliveryman takeaway and other.
For catching criminals were secretly carried out operation, in which police brought the fake accounts of the boys and girls from 14 to 15 years and interacted with alleged pedophiles. Men, according to prosecutors, it doesn’t age and they kept talking to minors about sex and agreed to meet them for sex.
In April, for 5 days, it was decided to arrest the suspects. For this, the police have appointed their interlocutors meeting in a house in Bergen County. 13 out of 16 men arrived at the appointed place, expecting to see only a lonely child, but they were met by a group of police officers and immediately detained.
One offender was arrested at the Mall and the other at home. A police bow their minor child to have sex, were arrested in the Prosecutor’s office Bergen County in mid-April. He worked in Ridgewood and while waiting for the results of the investigation were suspended from work.
Detained during the «operation home Alone»
The accused was seized electronic devices to locate additional evidence. It turned out that two of the 16 men kept large amount of child pornography on his devices. One of them has a number of banned file has reached 13 thousand.
According to official data, all arrested from 26 to 55 years. Most of them live in new York state, including Westchester and Rockland, and Northern new Jersey, and only one in Philadelphia.
All suspects were charged with various charges, including attempt sexual assault on a minor, possession of child pornography, attempted corruption of the morals of a child and drug offences.
16 alleged child predators used social media to lure kids for sex in New Jersey https://t.co/lokQ7d2KYQ
— Mike Kramer STRETCHⓂ app (@mkstretch) April 25, 2019
It is noteworthy that the cyber criminals to search for victims don’t always use social networks and chat such as Kik, Skout, MeetMe, Adam4Adam, Grindr, Tinder, Wishbone, Hot or Not, Tumblr, not neglect, they are games where you can talk with participants, such as Fortnite and Minecraft.
The authorities strongly recommend that parents be attentive to social networking and chat applications that use their children.
«In the past, predators lay in wait for children on playgrounds, in schoolyards, in shopping malls. Now they are hiding in social networks,» said Gurbir was Gravel, the attorney General of the state of new Jersey, at a press conference on Wednesday.
He advised adults to talk with their children and warn them about the dangers of communicating with strangers.
«16 of the men we arrested used social media to track down victims who, in their opinion, were vulnerable children, and which to persuade to have sex, said Grewal. — Parents need to know that the profiles of underage girls and boys who we posted on social networks to catch these criminals could easily be a profile of their own children who can be targeted by predators in chat rooms and gaming sites».
