After a week of operations, at the 81st annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in South Dakota, 9 men were arrested for trafficking in children.
Investigations involving multiple law enforcement agencies began on August 6 and ended on August 12. The U.S. Attorney’s Office in South Dakota Tuesday.
All men between the ages of 22 and 54 are now facing felony charges.
Eight of the nine men are from South Dakota and are accused of attempting to use the Internet to lure minors with a minimum sentence of 10 years.
The ninth man, from New York, was charged with attempting to engage in commercial sex transactions with minors with a minimum sentence of 15 years.
The operation involved the South Dakota Internet Crime Task Force against Children, the South Dakota Criminal Investigation Service, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Investigation, the Pennington County Sheriff’s Office, and the Rapid City Police Department.
“The U.S. Attorney’s Office would like to thank all law enforcement partners involved in the investigation for their efforts and continued cooperation,” the press release said.
During the operation, law enforcement agencies used advertisements on websites and mobile apps to communicate with online predators, Fast City Magazine Report.
The Wall Street Journal also reported that some of the arrests were due to “sending pornographic information and digital photos to DCI agents” and one of the arrested men “admitted to participating in these chats and admitted to knowing that they were minors. , Communication is sexual in nature.”
