Six men arrested in sting attempting to meet minors for sex, Polk County sheriff says

Six men were arrested when they showed up at an undercover house intending to have sex with a minor during a seven-day sting operation, Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said.

Judd said the operation started Sept. 19 and involved the Polk, Hillsborough, Lake and Orange sheriff's departments and the Lakeland, Haines City and Tampa police departments. It was run at the same as a prostitution and human trafficking operation that resulted in 219 arrests.

During the operation, detectives posed as children or guardians of children on social media platforms, mobile apps and online dating sites to investigate adults who attempt to meet children online for sex. Six suspects showed up to an undercover location to engage in sex, Judd said.

"These are people that thought they were going to come have sex with children. They came to a strange, undercover location, thinking they were going to encounter a 13-, or a 14-, or a 15-year-old child," Judd said in a Tuesday afternoon news conference.

Judd said three of the six suspects were nabbed in what he called a "bad stepmom operation," meaning they thought they were paying a guardian hundreds of dollars to have sex with the minor. Those three were charged with human trafficking, a life felony.

According to the Sheriff's Office, the following suspects were arrested in the sting.

• Jairo Muniz, 40 of Kissimmee: The Sheriff's Office said Muniz, who is married with four children, engaged in an online conversation on a social networking site and via cell phone with an undercover detective who was posing as a 13-year-old girl. Muniz was booked into the Polk County Jail and charged with four felonies. He was released from jail on Sept. 24 after posting bond.

• Timothy Wellman, 36, of Ohio (recently moved to Polk): The Sheriff's Office said Wellman engaged in an online conversation on a social networking site and via cell phone with an undercover detective who was posing as a 14-year-old girl. Judd said he told detectives that he is divorced and was telling his two kids, ages 5 and 6, good night by phone when he was driving to the undercover location. He said that he is an Army veteran using his G.I. Bill for college. He was charged with three felonies.

• Feras Klisli, 49, of Davenport. The Sheriff's Office said Klisli engaged in an online conversation on a social networking site and via cell phone with an undercover detective who was posing as a 14-year-old girl. The Sheriff's Office said he told detectives that he is married with two adult children and that he is an Uber driver. Klisli was charged with three felonies and released on bond Sept. 24.

• Douglas Da Silva, 46, of Windermere: The Sheriff's Office said Da Silva engaged in an online conversation with an undercover detective who was posing as an adult who had access to a 15-year-old female child and agreed to pay her $250 to have unprotected sex with the child. He told detectives that he is an Uber Eats driver, is married, and that he and his wife own a house-cleaning business. Da Silva was charged with four felonies, including first-degree human trafficking.

• Trevor Walker, 33, of Orlando: The Sheriff's Office said Walker thought he was talking to an adult who had access to a 15-year-old female child and agreed to pay her $400 to have unprotected sex with the child for three hours. Walker was charged with four felonies, including the first-degree felony of human trafficking.

• Douglas Cooley, 26, of Apopka: The Sheriff's Office said Cooley also thought he was communicating with an adult who had access to a 15-year-old female child and agreed to pay $100 to have sex with the child. Cooley was charged with four felonies, including first-degree human trafficking.

Lakeland High track coach arrested: Charged with sexually assaulting 16-year-old boy

"We don't tell what sites we go on. But unlike child pornography, where people can go to the dark web and make it really difficult for us to figure out who the child pornographers are, to get to children, you've got to surface into gaming apps, social media apps, and that's where we find them," Judd said.

"Anytime parents allow children to use social media at all, they've got to monitor it nonstop," he added. "Because these folks are out here lurking around on these social media apps of different kinds, to find your child, to groom your child, to have sex with your child."

This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Polk sheriff's online sex predator sting nabs 6 men