Ten child predators arrested as result of Operation Cyber Knights 2022
Citrus County, Florida - The Citrus County Sheriff's Office's High Tech Crimes Unit released the results of Operation Cyber Knights, a strategic undercover Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) operation to apprehend cyber predators who had the intention engaging in sexual activity with a child, which resulted in ten arrests.
Over the course of this operation, officials with the CCSO worked collaboratively with numerous partner law enforcement agencies to capture online child sex predators. These partners included the United States Marshals Service Florida/Caribbean Fugitive Task Force (USMS / FCFTF), the United States Secret Service, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE), Sumter County (Florida) Sheriff's Office, Hernando County (Florida) Sheriff's Office, Pasco County (Florida) Sheriff's Office, Sarasota (Florida) Police Department, and the Longwood (Florida) Police Department
Ten arrests were made as a result of this operation, during which law enforcement officers posed undercover as a 13 or 14 year-old girl, or a 13 or 14 year-old boy, and exchanged online messages with these alleged children. Despite the acknowledgment of the 'child's' alleged age, these suspects engaged in sexually explicit conversations with the alleged children, detailing the sexual activities they hoped to perform with the child
"Parents, predators know how susceptible and trusting our children are," said Citrus County Sheriff Mike Prendergast. "They also know just how easy it is to gain access to your children and exploit them through the internet. The disgusting and sexually deviant behaviors these predators displayed in their online chats are monstrous. But to willingly arrange to meet up with a child, to carry out these sickening acts, makes them very real and very dangerous. I am extremely proud of the teamwork from the various law enforcement agencies that went into making these arrests possible and for knowing, that thanks to their dedication, we've stopped these sexual predators from preying on children in our county and our surrounding counties."
Watch a brief video of the arrests here: https://youtu.be/LCxT5G_cuZs.
The following subjects were arrested in Citrus County during this operation:
Christopher Covyaw, 49, of Inverness, FL, was charged with four counts of transmission of harmful material; seducing, soliciting, luring, or enticing a child to engage in an illegal act; failing to register electronic e-mail address as a sexual offender, failure to register telephone number as a sexual offender, and unlawful use of a two-way communication device ($137,000 bond).
Dustin Warlick, 34, of Inverness, FL, was charged with traveling to seduce or solicit a child in a sex act, four counts of knowingly transmitting harmful material to a minor, attempted lewd and lascivious molestation, and unlawful use of a two-way communication device ($137,000 bond).
Fabricio Oswaldo Aguilar Beccera, 41, of Ocala, FL, was charged with traveling to seduce or solicit a child in a sex act, and unlawful use of a two-way communication device ($27,000 bond).
Kenneth Hottes, 43, of Ocala, FL, was charged with knowingly transmittting harmful material to a minor, traveling to seduce or solicit a child in a sex act, and unlawful use of a two-way communication device ($52,000 bond).
Bruce William Henderson, Jr., 50, of Brooksville, FL, was charged with traveling to seduce or solicit a child in a sex act; seducing, soliciting, luring, or enticing a child to engage in an illegal act, and unlawful use of a two-way communication device ($52,000 bond).
Harold Wilfred Carver, III, 45, of Orlando, FL, was arrested as a fugitive from justice from Washington County, Virginia, on eight counts of rape and sexual battery (no bond).
The following people were arrested on Citrus County, Florida warrants as part of this operation:
Timothy Brown, 53, of Ponte Vedra, FL, was arrested by the United States Marshals Service Florida/Caribbean Fugitive Task Force on seventeen counts of transmission of harmful material to a minor, and seducing, soliciting, luring, or enticing a child to engage in an illegal act ($450,000 bond).
Lawrence Neu, 67, of Lakeland, FL, was arrested by the Polk County Sheriff's Office on nine counts of transmission of harmful material to a minor; seducing, soliciting, luring, or enticing a child to engage in an illegal act, and unlawful use of a two-way communication device ($252,000 bond).
Justin Rampe, 38, of Williston, FL, was arrested by the Levy County Sheriff's Office, charged with transmission of harmful material; seducing, soliciting, luring, or enticing a child to engage in an illegal act, and unlawful use of a two-way communication device ($6,000 bond).
Phillip Simpson, 26, of Anthony, FL, was arrested by the United States Marshals Service Florida/Caribbean Fugitive Task Force, charged with transmission of harmful material, computer pornography, soliciting, luring, or enticing, and unlawful use of a two-way communication device ($52,000 bond).
REPORT A CRIME AGAINST A YOUTH
If you live in Citrus County and suspect someone of committing crimes against a youth, please call (352) 249-2790 to report your suspicions to the CCSO, or contact Crime Stoppers of Citrus County at 1-888-ANY-TIPS to remain anonymous.
You can also download the Sheriff's App to use the "Submit a Tip" feature to instantly make a report for Android or Apple devices. Users of the Sheriff's App can look up Sexual Offenders in their area by clicking on the "Sexual Offenders" feature, which will show a photo of the offender, their name, physical descriptors, address, and your approximate distance from their location (if app location settings are turned on by the user).
Download the Sheriff's App here:
ANDROID DEVICES:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ocv.citruscountyflsheriff&hl=en_US&gl=US
APPLE DEVICES:
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/citrus-county-sheriffs-office/id1481134574
About the Citrus County Sheriff's Office's High Tech Crimes Unit:
The High-Tech Crime Unit is a unit within the Criminal Investigations Division whose primary function is investigating child pornography on the internet. This unit is also tasked with the investigation of technologically facilitated offenses including but not limited to forgeries, fraud, fiduciary crimes, breach of computer security, and social networking-related offenses. The HTCU has the capability to forensically examine various devices and is a proud member of Florida Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force which actively investigates online child exploitation.