A monk from Riverside and an
Australian man looking to buy a 6-year-old boy were among 238 people arrested
during a two-month operation targeting child predators in Southern California,
officials said Monday.
Conducted
by the Los Angeles Regional Internet Crimes against Children task force, “Operation Broken Heart III”
targeted offenders wanted for the sexual exploitation of children, child
prostitution, sex tourism and possessing and distributing child pornography, said
Deputy Chief Matt Blake of the Los Angeles Police Department.
Among
those arrested during sweeps in April and May were entertainers, community
leaders, white-collar professionals and clergy members, said John Reynolds,
acting special agent in charge for U.S.
Department of Homeland Security Investigations.
“The
incidence of child sexual exploitation has reached staggering proportions,” he
said at a news conference.
Law
enforcement officials said the arrests underscore the importance of families
maintaining an open dialogue about Internet safety.
“Parents
and kids need to have frank conversations about how to stay safe in
cyberspace,” Reynolds said.
Children
and teens, he said, are spending more time on the Internet and social media
sites, where child predators often look for victims.
The Los Angeles task force is one of 61
programs nationwide funded through the U.S. Justice Department’s
Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. Created in 2014,
Operation Broken Heart gives law enforcement agencies and task forces an
opportunity to combine resources and investigative tools to identify child
sexual predators.
The Los
Angeles Police Department's Internet Crimes Against Children unit serves about
300 warrants each year in pursuit of child pornography suspects. In a high-rise
building in Long Beach, 11 officers
review an average of 350 child pornography cases a month.
Investigators
use forensic equipment inside a mobile crime lab named "The Beast" to
scan through hard drives for any illicit images.
In
May, Michael Quinn, 33, traveled from Australia to Los Angeles to complete a
deal to buy a 6-year-old boy for sex, according to the U.S. attorney’s office
in Los Angeles.
Undercover
agents met Quinn on a social media networking site, where he had communicated
that he wanted to “meet up with a dad who shares his young one,” according to
prosecutors.
“Quinn
explained to the undercover agent he was hoping to meet ‘other pervs’ in
the U.S. and ultimately agreed to pay a human trafficker $250 to provide him
with a young boy with whom he could engage in illicit sex,” according to the
U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles.
Quinn
went to a hotel in Los Angeles, where he planned to meet and party with three
other child predators and engage in sex with boys, prosecutors said.
Instead, undercover agents were waiting inside the hotel room.
After
Quinn handed money to an agent, who was posing as a sex trafficker, law
enforcement authorities entered the room and arrested him, prosecutors said.
Weeks
later in Riverside, authorities arrested Kounzong Saebphang, 26, a monk, at his
home in the Wat Lao Buddhist Monastery in Riverside.
Authorities
were investigating Saebphang since last year when they received information
that he was possibly distributing child pornography, according to the Riverside
County district attorney’s office.
When
federal investigators searched the monastery, they found at least one digital
device containing child pornography in his belongings, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors alleged he also distributed child pornography to another person
through a social media site.
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