Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters announced the results of a week-long child sex crimes sting at the agency’s headquarters Thursday, saying 29 men were arrested in April’s “Operation Checkmate.”
Waters said the operation involved undercover JSO officers pretending to be underaged teens engaging online with men attempting to lure children for sex.
The undercover officers agreed to meet with the men at locations across Jacksonville. Once the suspects arrived, they were met by JSO officers or even the SWAT team.
In a statement, JSO officials said those arrested come from different backgrounds, including one who was a youth athletics coach.
These are the names of the suspects:
Elias Martinez Guerra, 30
Jaime Castellanos Marin, 42
“Operations like this lower the demand for child exploitation and help keep children safe,” JSO said in a statement. “The more we do it, the more we bring awareness to the issue.”
Of the 29 men, Waters said five of them were not in the country legally and one man recently finished serving a 17-year prison sentence for armed robbery. He added that Jacob Futch, Zachary Stitz, and Mikal Detoro have previous arrests for similar crimes involving children.
“It’s frustrating. I think you should put them all in prison forever. That’s just my opinion, or we get rid of them completely because my experience tells me that they can’t be cured,” Waters said.
Waters also highlighted the case of 51-year-old John Mullins, who he said worked for an events company in Jacksonville. According to his arrest report, Mullins was taken into custody at VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena. First Coast News reached out to Legends Global, the company that operates events at the venue, for a comment. A spokesperson said they do not comment on personnel matters.
Waters would not discuss what went into these investigations and the platforms that were used, but he did have a warning for parents.
“You should just check what your kids are looking at, who they’re communicating with, the times that they’re communicating with them. Oftentimes, their kids go to bed with phones. You have to watch, you have to be careful,” Waters explained.
If you suspect someone is trying to lure a child online, notify the Cyber Tipline at CyberTipline.org or by calling 1.800.THE.LOST.