Undercover Homeland Security agents arrest alleged child predators in Omaha
OMAHA, Neb. —
Omaha’s News Leader was with Homeland Security Investigators as they arrested alleged child sex predators.
Five suspects were arrested in total last week as part of an effort by federal, state and local law enforcement. HSI took KETV NewsWatch 7 behind the sting operation.
A sunny Thursday afternoon doesn’t reflect the dark activity going down right here in the heartland of America.
“In the last five years, HSI in Omaha, Nebraska, we’ve made 21 federal arrests for child sex trafficking,” Omaha’s HSI Supervisory Special Agent in Charge, Chris Hessenflow, said. “The planning process starts months in advance.”
The goal is to shine a light on people preying on children in the Omaha community.
“It’s everybody from everywhere,” Hessenflow said. “We have long stopped being surprised by who shows up to meet these children.”
He said it starts with connecting with possible perpetrators online. “We will go to those places where we know that they are looking for children to harm,” he said. “That’s where we meet a lot of them.”
Some people stop the conversation after they realize the worker is a minor, but others keep chatting with undercover agents.
HSI officials said in this operation, 146 people showed initial interest in commercial sex. Once undercover agents said the sex worker was a minor, 46 of them still showed interest.
“It tells us a broader trend nationwide that people who are looking for sex with a minor have access to the internet, just like our children do,” Eric Cardiel, Iowa’s HSI Special Agent in Charge, said. “They can reach from hundreds of miles away, and many people have shown the willingness to travel.”
The U.S. Attorney for the District of Nebraska, Lesley Woods, said in this operation, “We were able to get targets that were residing in both Omaha and Lincoln. So, overall I would say it went very well and everybody, everything was safe.”
Woods said once HSI agents had enough proof, they took down five men.
Alleged child predators in HSI sex trafficking sting operation
- Jocsan Aparicio-Santos
- Current federal charges
- Attempted sex trafficking of a minor
- Penalties for registered sex offenders
- Prior conviction
- Child abuse/sexual abuse out of Lancaster County
- Current federal charges
- Logan Trigg
- Current federal charges
- Attempted sex trafficking of a minor
- Penalties for registered sex offenders
- Prior convictions
- 1st degree sexual assault of a minor out of Scotts Bluff County
- Domestic assault
- Felony theft (active probation out of Sarpy County)
- Sex Offender Registration Act (SORA) violation
- Child abuse (active probation out of Sarpy County)
- Current federal charges
- Tillian Hutton
- Current federal charges
- Attempted sex trafficking of a minor
- No criminal history
- Current federal charges
- Law Eh
- Current federal charges
- Attempted sex trafficking of a minor
- Possession of child pornography
- No criminal history
- Current federal charges
- Bryan Dady
- Current federal charges
- Attempted sex trafficking of a minor
- Penalties for registered sex offenders
- Prior conviction
- Attempted enticement of a minor under 16 out of Pottawattamie County, Iowa
- Current federal charges
“It’s more than just talk. It’s more than just planning,” she said. “You now have a defendant or criminal target taking specific, concrete actions to harm a child, meet up with a child, to pay for sex with a child.”
Undercover HSI agents found two of the arrested were on the Nebraska sex offender registry with prior child sex offenses.
“That, to me, signals that we need tougher penalties, and these people need to be locked up for more significant amounts of time,” Woods said. “If we’re going to keep our children safe.”
KETV NewsWatch 7 will have more coverage on this story coming soon.
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