Authorities in Mooresville say they arrested fourteen people in a
sting investigation involving Internet crimes against children.
We're told that Operation Artemis is the largest child predator
sting in
Mooresville's history. Channel 9's Jonathan Lowe is live for us
from The Newsroom tonight.
And Jonathan, authorities say they actually started this operation months
ago.
Yeah, that's right, Erica. This is Operation Artemis on the
Mooresville PD Facebook page.
Though Operation Artemis involved suspects chatting online with minors,
the chief says that they actually didn't have any minors
that were victimized.
The suspects never actually got the opportunity to meet them.
Even still, the chief characterized this as the
2024 version of Predators trying to lure a child with
a piece of candy.
And he says tonight, parents really need to be village
vigilant when their children are online.
Today, Mooresville Police announced the arrest of 15 individuals accused
of going online and arranging to meet with a minor
for sex.
This is the largest child predator operation in MP DS
history.
MPD Chief Ron Compreciani says planning the sting operation started
six months ago and was actually carried out between Tuesday
and Thursday of this week.
It included nineteen different law enforcement agencies staffed with
65 personnel. The suspects ranged in age from
25 to 78,
with suspects traveling a far as far away as threaten
of Virginia.
Some of the suspects have startling backgrounds.
Dawson Davidson, who's the individual there in the red shirt,
it doesn't work anymore. But he did tell us that
prior
his prior employment was driving the school bus.
Ages of the minors the suspects thought they were meeting
ranged from just 13 to 15 years old.
All of these individuals that we arrested were were
very well aware of the age of the people they
were talking to.
This isn't a mistake. Chief Comperchiani says the operation was
highly organized and targeted.
We had 25 chatters in our that were constantly on
these sites.
Talking to these people,
engaging them in conversation with the operation had the benefit
of special software through the State Bureau of Investigation that
specifically seeks out suspects like these.
They give us information on any type of what they
feel is
Child Exploitation or minors or people trying to get
child porn and things like that.
And likely most concerning of all,
Chief Conferenciani says these suspects were experienced.
I don't think this is the first time for any
of these people,
which is scary because that means they've done it a
number of times without being caught.
Now, the chief listed nine different social platforms that the
suspects were using.
I'm going to list them for you.
They are Facebook, Fetlife, double list,
skip the games, mega personals,
Grinder, Discord chat app and Sniffies.
But the chief says that it appears Facebook was used
the most.
Live in The Newsroom Tonight,
Jonathan Lowe, Channel 9 Eyewitness News.