Undercover child sex sting leads to arrest of 22 men, many from the South Sound
The Washington State Patrol said it has arrested 22 suspected sexual predators this month as part of an undercover child sex sting in Western Washington.
Many are from the South Sound.
It’s the 15th so-called “Net Nanny” operation that the State Patrol’s Missing and Exploited Children Task Force has done since August 2015.
The operations involve undercover officers using different websites to try to reach people who want to have sex with children.
Suspects are arrested when they travel to meet the officers who have been pretending to be children online.
The task force has made 246 arrests and rescued more than 30 kids since the operations began, the State Patrol said.
The recent operation happened between Feb. 15 and 20.
Those arrested ranged in age from 17 to 59.
The suspects are from Aberdeen, Fife, Graham, Lacey, Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Olympia, Rochester, Seattle, Shelton, Tacoma and Tenino. One suspect is from Arizona, and the State Patrol listed one as transient.
More than 70 officers from multiple agencies were part of the operation.
This story was originally published February 21, 2019 at 4:28 PM.
