LAS VEGAS (KLAS) – Most of the 18 men arrested in an undercover operation this summer reported by the 8 News Now Investigators in early September 2024 thought they were talking to boys and girls ranging in age from 13 to 15 with the hopes of engaging in sexual activity, according to police reports and court documents.
The sting, run by the Nevada Internet Crimes Against Children – which included detectives from that task force and the FBI’s Child Exploitation Task Force, as well as the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, Federal Bureau of Investigation, North Las Vegas Police Department, Henderson Police Department, Homeland Security Investigations, U.S. Air Force Office of Special Investigation, and the Nevada Attorney General.
The men ranged in age from 22-60, all speaking with decoys posing as underage children. All 18 men face charges for Luring a Minor with a Computer to Engage in Sex.
Three of those cases are illustrative of most of the 18, including:
- One man, 26, who thought he was meeting a 15-year-old girl to whom he spoke graphically of sex. He provided the decoy with photos of himself, but he told police, in his own defense, “I knew what this was,” and that he was there to “catch the sick SOB.” He told police he only said sexual things to the decoy because he was “playing along,” and wanted to “catch her in another lie.” He agreed to take a polygraph and wrote a letter of apology during his police interview. He is now out of jail on $20,000 bail.
- Another man, 24 admitted to police the boy he was talking with – another decoy – said he was 13. When he got busted, he told police he brought condoms, but, “for sexual encounters with older men.” Additionally, according to the police report, he admitted to having an “addiction to masturbation,” and “has a problem and needs help. Initially, he told police he wanted to get caught, and never intended on having sex with a 13-year-old boy. But, the police report says, he eventually told them “he did want to have sex with the 13-year-old boy.”
- The oldest of the men arrested, 60, spoke with a decoy posing as the father of an 8-year-old girl. The police report details that the two discussed “sexual contact” with that girl that included taking off her clothing, touching her “little body,” and other disturbing acts. He told the decoy he “wanted to talk about his side of the story,” but that the interaction was “all fantasy,” the police report said. However, the report also says he told the decoy, “fantasy is safer than reality but if you really are real, let’s meet.” That man declined a polygraph.
Still another man, 32, “was diagnosed as HIV positive two years ago,” the police report said. He is accused of using an online platform to speak with a decoy posing as a 15-year-old boy. The police report said “he insists that his doctors have assured him that he is fine.” He was discussing meeting the boy at a predetermined location and told him “You just lay down and I will the rest [sic].”
At least one of the 18 defendants has a closed case in which prosecutors advised that he would likely be indicted by a grand jury. Several others have had their cases bound over from North Las Vegas Justice Court to Clark County District Court and some of them have pleaded guilty. Others have open court dates in October in North Las Vegas Justice Court.
