4 arrested in undercover investigation targeting online child predators in northwest Georgia

Four people were arrested recently during an undercover investigation that targeted online child predators in northwest Georgia.

“Operation Child-Proof” was a three-day proactive undercover investigation coordinated by the Chattooga County Sheriff’s Office, the Floyd County Police Department, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, the Georgia Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, and numerous other agencies.

The Chattooga County Sheriff’s Office says the suspects that were arrested range in age from 30 to 67 and traveled from areas around Chattooga County believing they were going to meet a child and engage in prearranged sex acts.

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The goal of the investigation was to arrest people who communicate with children online and then travel to meet them to commit a sex crime.

Investigators had more than 15 exchanges with the suspects on various social media or internet platforms.

The sheriff’s office says all of those exchanges included a conversation between the suspect and who they believed to be a minor, where the suspect directed the conversation towards sex.

In some of those cases, the suspect introduced obscene or lewd content, exposing the would-be minor to pornography or requesting the child take pornographic images for them.

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Bobby Leon Brock, 41, of Silver Creek, Georgia is charged with use of a computer to lure, seduce, solicit, or entice a child for illegal acts, possession of fentanyl, possession of fentanyl with intent to distribute, trafficking in fentanyl, possession of methamphetamine, and crossing guard line with drugs (all felony charges).

William Alexander White, 30, of Hixon, Tennessee is charged with obscene internet contact with a child, electronically furnishing obscene material to minors, sexual exploitation of a child, and use of a computer to lure, seduce, solicit, or entice a child for illegal acts.

Micah Van Donaldson, 41, of Rome, Georgia is charged with use of a computer to lure, seduce, solicit, or entice a child for illegal acts, obscene internet contact with a child, and sexual exploitation of children (all felony charges).

Hugh Bradley Taff, 67, of Rockmart, Georgia is charged with felony sexual exploitation of children.

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