Florida sheriff's sting arrests 281, including Disney and Universal employees

The Polk County Sheriff's Office said 281 people were arrested during a seven-day undercover operation targeting prostitution, human trafficking and adults who travel to meet children for sex, with 17 of the suspects telling detectives they worked at Walt Disney World or Universal Studios. Sheriff Grady Judd announced the results Friday, describing the sweep, named "Polk Around and Find Out II," as the latest in a series of undercover stings his office has run across Central Florida in recent years.

Of the 281 arrests, 239 involved soliciting a prostitute, offering to commit prostitution, or helping transport or profit from prostitutes, while 31 were classified as child-sexual-predator cases and 11 involved other charges, according to the sheriff's office's own account of the operation's results. Detectives filed 198 felony and 290 misdemeanor charges against the suspects, who had a combined 358 prior felony and 440 prior misdemeanor charges on their records, the agency said.

The numbers behind the sweep

Seven of the 17 suspects who said they worked at the two theme park operators were arrested in the child-predator portion of the investigation, the sheriff's office said. Detectives also took into custody 32 people who were in the country illegally, from nine different countries, and said 22 of the suspects were collecting a combined $8,373 a month in public assistance. Of the 239 prostitution-related arrests, 117 suspects were accused of soliciting a prostitute and traveling to an undercover location to negotiate paying for sex, while 122 were accused of traveling specifically to commit prostitution; those 122 were screened by detectives and caseworkers from the Florida Department of Children and Families and the nonprofit One More Child to determine whether they were themselves being trafficked or exploited. Eleven potential trafficking victims were identified during the operation and offered services, the sheriff's office said.

• 281 total arrests; 198 new felony charges and 290 new misdemeanor charges
• 31 arrests classified as child-sexual-predator cases; 239 tied to prostitution or trafficking; 11 other
• 17 suspects said they worked at Walt Disney World or Universal Studios; seven of them were charged as predators
• 32 suspects were in the country illegally, from nine countries; 11 trafficking victims were identified

The operation drew on investigators well beyond the sheriff's office, including agents from Homeland Security Investigations; the Florida attorney general's Office of Statewide Prosecution; the Florida Department of Financial Services; the State Attorney's Office for the 10th Judicial Circuit; several municipal police departments; several county sheriff's offices; the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Division; and the U.S. Secret Service. Homeland Security Investigations, the Immigration and Customs Enforcement unit that took part, says it participates in more than 90 human-trafficking task forces with state and local agencies nationwide.

A sting the sheriff runs roughly twice a year

The October sweep was a sequel to an operation also named Polk Around and Find Out that Judd's office announced in May and that produced 266 arrests, 34 of them involving people in the country illegally and seven identified trafficking victims. Judd has used similarly blunt names for undercover stings for more than a decade, regularly inviting reporters to news conferences where he reads through a roster of suspects and their alleged conduct. The pattern has drawn sustained local coverage, including from Tampa's Fox 13, which has chronicled a string of earlier Polk County operations that have also swept up Walt Disney World and Universal Studios employees.

Who was arrested

Among those arrested this time were an Orange County sheriff's deputy who works as a school resource deputy at an elementary school and agreed to pay an undercover detective for sex; the head coach of a youth football and cheerleading program in Davenport for children ages 11 to 14; and a U.S. Navy petty officer third class based in Jacksonville who falsely told an undercover detective posing as a 14-year-old that he was 17, according to the sheriff's office. All three face felony charges tied to the child-predator portion of the operation, except the deputy, who was charged with misdemeanor solicitation.

"It is extremely disturbing when we encounter nasty child predators like these who are very eager to have sex with children. This is why we conduct these types of undercover operations. Keeping children safe is our number one priority, and we appreciate our partnering agencies, without whom we would not be as successful in apprehending these dangerous offenders." — Sheriff Grady Judd

Reaction and what comes next

Florida's chief financial officer, Blaise Ingoglia, whose office's financial-crimes investigators also took part, said in a statement released with the sheriff's announcement that his investigators "will continue to assist our local law enforcement partners to protect our communities from human trafficking and child sex predators."

Judd told reporters that Walt Disney World cooperated with investigators and had fired the employees implicated in the sting, CBS News reported following the sheriff's announcement. Neither Disney nor Universal Studios issued a public statement responding to the arrests.

The suspects arrested on state charges are being held in the Polk County Jail and will be prosecuted by the State Attorney's Office for the 10th Judicial Circuit; the sheriff's office did not say when charges would be formally filed in circuit court. Suspects found to be in the country illegally are expected to face federal immigration proceedings in addition to any state charges, a pattern that followed the May operation as well. Judd's office has not said when it expects to run its next undercover sting, though the roughly six-month gap between the two most recent operations suggests another could come within the next several months.