Aurora Police Department officers arrested two suspects over the last two weeks after a multi-agency online child predator operation, the department said.
APD’s Internet Crimes Against Children Unit completed an operation that led to the arrest of 39-year-old Gregory Thomas Daniels and 68-year-old Ralph Edward Bledsoe, an airline pilot who allegedly “victimized minors throughout the country,” the department said in a Friday press release.
Bledsoe, a resident of Florissant, was arrested on Tuesday after he allegedly arrived at an Aurora hotel for a fake meeting to have sex with a minor, police said.
The man was arrested on suspicion of internet luring of a child, internet sexual exploitation of a child and attempted sex assault of a child.
While Bledsoe had no criminal background, investigators found he may previously have had sexual relationships with minors in Denver, Pennsylvania and Phoenix.
“Bledsoe being an airline pilot and the possibility of previous sexual relationships with underaged victims raises significant concerns about the potential of there being victims throughout the country,” Lt. Seth Robertson, of the Special Victims Section, said in the release. “His arrest does not mean this investigation is over.”
Daniels was arrested on April 2 after he allegedly traveled to a location in Aurora to have sex with a minor. He was arrested on suspicion of internet luring of a child and attempted sex assault of a child.
“As a police officer and father, I am appalled by these disgusting crimes that target children within our community,” Mark Hildebrand, chief of the Investigations Division, said in the release. “It is the truest representation of evil.”
