Online sex predator sting by Sacramento task force -- 18 arrested across Northern California

Sacramento Bee - 3/12/2023

Authorities on Friday announced the results of a sting operation that ended with the arrests of 18 Northern California men, including 13 from Sacramento County, who are suspected of sexually soliciting undercover investigators posing as children online.

Investigators with the Internet Crimes Against Children team, which works out of the Sacramento County Sheriff's Office, initiated "Operation Secret Admirer" beginning on Valentine's Day. The 15-day undercover investigation was jointly conducted by federal, state and local law enforcement agencies.

The undercover investigators took to various social media sites and other online platforms posing as children 13 and younger to identify, contact and arrest anyone who was trying to target children for sex.

Sheriff Jim Cooper said the suspects in the sting operations would attempt to "groom" who they believed were children and arrange to meet them for sex. He said some would send nude photos of themselves to entice the children to do the same; typically a ruse to blackmail the child into further illicit behavior by threatening to expose the child to their family or friends.

The sheriff said among the 18 men arrested, three of them were registered sex offenders and another was wearing a GPS ankle bracelet for pre-trial monitoring in a felony false imprisonment case. He said some sexually solicited more than one undercover investigator, indicating they were willing to target more than one child.

He urged parents not to give their children unrestricted or unattended access to social media apps and other online platforms, where sexual predators continue to target children.

"These are very bad people we got off the streets," Cooper said during a news conference Friday. "There are a whole lot more out there."

The sheriff said they decided to release the suspects' mugshots, because investigators believe the arrested suspects have targeted children online before. Authorities asked anyone who was victimized by one of the suspects to report it to local law enforcement.

'If you go after our children, we will come after you'

The suspect faces charges that include contacting a minor with the intent to commit a sex crime, arranging to meet with a minor for lewd purposes, attempted lewd or lascivious acts with a child younger than 14, distribution of harmful material to a minor and attempted production of child pornography.

Sheriff's officials said the arrested suspects, if convicted, would face incarceration and be required to register as sex offenders.

Investigators from the California Department of Justice also participated in the sting operation. California Attorney General Rob Bonta, who also attended Friday's news conference at Sheriff's Office headquarters, said the arrests are the result of the collaborative work and expertise of the investigative team.

"I have one message for every predator out there: If you go after our children, we will come after you," Bonta said at the news conference. "And this is an example of that. We will hold you accountable. We will put you behind bars, we will make sure we keep our kids safe."

Sacramento County District Attorney Thien Ho said his office assigned a prosecutor to work with the investigators in the sting operation, obtaining from the court more than 50 search warrants to locate the suspects.

Among those arrested, 13 suspects traveled to a location with the intent to meet with a child for sex and were apprehended by investigators waiting for them, according to the Sheriff's Office. The remaining suspects were taken into custody at alternate locations.

"As someone who has personally prosecuted child molesters and serial rapists, I recognize that these sexual predators represent a parent's worst nightmare," Ho told reporters. "They represent a community's greatest fear, and they represent the biggest threat to our children's innocence."

ICAC task force covers 30 counties

The Internet Crimes Against Children team is part of the Sacramento Valley High-Tech Crimes Task Force, which also has an Identity Theft team, and a Digital Forensics team.

The Internet Crimes team serves 30 counties in Northern California from Stanislaus County to the Oregon border. It has trained and equipped investigators at about 100 law enforcement agencies throughout the region, giving them the capability of investigating online child predator cases in their area. The team also has 20 investigators in Sacramento, taking on cases in the largest metro area in the task force's region.

Other agencies that participated in the sting operation included the FBI, U.S.Homeland Security Investigations, Sacramento County Probation, the Elk Grove, Sacramento, Rancho Cordova and Folsom police departments, the Placer County and San Joaquin County sheriff's offices, California'sDivision of Adult Parole Operations and the El Dorado County District Attorney's Office.

Sacramento Sheriff's Sgt. Brandon Gayman, who supervised the undercover investigation, said the sting operation was designed to last three days. But he said the operation continued for more than two weeks as investigators tracked down suspects who failed to show up at the meeting locations. There also were other suspects the investigators deemed too dangerous to go unapprehended.

Gayman said the undercover investigators made it clear during their online conversations that the suspects were speaking to a child.

"It is reiterated multiple times that the person is underage, that they're a minor, they're a child," Gayman said during Friday's news conference. "And that's even continuously referenced in other things like them being in school or having to do some type of homework."

Those arrested in the sting operation are:

Carrel Eversoll Weldon III, 22, of Walnut Grove (registered sex offender)

Christopher Eric Campbell, 48, of Citrus Heights (registered sex offender)

Adam Matthew Kuite, 36, of Olivehurst (registered sex offender)

Paul Clifton Turner, 34, of Sacramento (felony pre-trial release)

Anthony Duane Page, 30, of Sacramento

Pablo Noel Narvarro ,28, of Sacramento

Frank Cardell Binger, 59, of Sacramento

Vishal Prasad, 30, of Rancho Cordova

Shomari Marwan Head, 37, of Sacramento

Hyatt Reilly Simmons, 34, of Sacramento

Elder Ulloallopez, 26, of San Francisco