Two dozen people will be prosecuted in connection with sex crimes against children after a massive sting operation, according to the DeKalb County District Attorney’s Office.
A grand jury indicted 24 people who investigators said were trying to solicit minors for sex.
The charges stem from a five-day undercover operation that started Jan. 30 and lasted through Super Bowl weekend, the district attorney’s office said. “Operation Interception” was coordinated by the GBI in partnership with the U.S. Marshals Service and local law enforcement agencies across multiple counties.
Officials from the FBI previously said 169 people were arrested in a human trafficking investigation in the 11 days leading up to the Super Bowl.
RELATED: FBI: 169 arrested in human trafficking investigation leading up to Super Bowl
According to investigators, the 24 people indicted in DeKalb contacted someone they believed was a 14-year-old online. In reality, undercover officers were posing as the teen, the DeKalb district attorney said.
The men, who range in age from 20 to 55, started sexually explicit conversations and sent obscene photographs to the undercover detective. Several of them traveled to Brookhaven to meet the 14-year-old for sex. When they arrived at the meeting location, they were confronted by the undercover agent and arrested, the district attorney said.
The accused men and their charges are:
• Miguel Auguilar-Zaragoza, 25, utilizing an electronic device to seduce, solicit or entice a child and obscene internet contact with a child; • Nicholas Alexander Bowen, 30, utilizing an electronic device to seduce, solicit or entice a child and obscene internet contact with a child;
• Tony Brady, 41, utilizing an electronic device to seduce, solicit or entice a child and obscene internet contact with a child; • Thomas Ho-Yan Cheung, 33, utilizing an electronic device to seduce, solicit or entice a child;
• Jeshua Elijah Collins, 23, utilizing an electronic device to seduce, solicit or entice a child;
• Tunde James Fadeyi, 56, utilizing an electronic device to seduce, solicit or entice a child and trafficking a person for sexual servitude; • Walter Antonio Gonzalez-Amaya, 23, two counts of utilizing an electronic device to seduce, solicit or entice a child and two counts of obscene internet contact with a child;
• Larry Allen Gordon, 32, utilizing an electronic device to seduce, solicit or entice a child;
• Zachary Tye Gourdine, 29, utilizing an electronic device to seduce, solicit or entice a child and trafficking a person for sexual servitude; • Dylan Michael Graham, 28, two counts of utilizing an electronic device to seduce, solicit or entice a child and two counts of obscene internet contact with a child;
• Dennis Joseph Harrish, 35, utilizing an electronic device to seduce, solicit or entice a child and obscene internet contact with a child;
• Richard Jason Hyder, 35, utilizing an electronic device to seduce, solicit or entice a child;
• Mitchell Alle Kennedy, 25, utilizing an electronic device to seduce, solicit or entice a child and obscene internet contact with a child;
• Raheem Lalani, 27, utilizing an electronic device to seduce, solicit or entice a child;
• Marco Mendoza-Escalante, 21, utilizing an electronic device to seduce, solicit or entice a child;
• Darwin Menjivar-Fernandez, 23, utilizing an electronic device to seduce, solicit or entice a child;
• Oscar Ramirez-Salgado, 40, utilizing an electronic device to seduce, solicit or entice a child;
• Juan Manuel Sanchez, 26, utilizing an electronic device to seduce, solicit or entice a child and trafficking a person for sexual servitude;
• Junior Cornelius Timoteus, 26, utilizing an electronic device to seduce, solicit or entice a child;
• Juan Valencia-Patino, 23, utilizing an electronic device to seduce, solicit or entice a child and obscene internet contact with a child;
• Tarno Walters, 23, utilizing an electronic device to seduce, solicit or entice a child and obscene internet contact with a child;
• Kyle Alexander Williams, 32, criminal attempt to commit aggravated child molestation, criminal attempt to commit statutory rape, criminal attempt to commit child molestation, two counts of utilizing an electronic device to seduce, solicit or entice a child, and two counts of obscene internet contact with a child;
• Robert Tyler Wilson, 32, utilizing an electronic device to seduce, solicit or entice a child;
• Dylan Golding Whynot, 33, utilizing an electronic device to seduce, solicit or entice a child.
