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A 25-year-old Jacksonville man has been indicted for attempting to entice a 13-year-old child to engage in sexual activity, according to the United States Attorney\u2019s Office for the Middle District of Florida.<\/p>\n
Adeis Jonathan Francis faces a minimum penalty of 10 years and up to life in federal prison if convicted of the charges.<\/p>\n
The indictment was announced on Friday following a multi-week undercover operation conducted by the FBI. The investigation, which took place in Jacksonville and Pensacola, utilized a social media application to identify individuals attempting to solicit children for sexual activity online.<\/p>\n
>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<<\/a><\/p>\n The investigation began when an FBI agent posing as a 13-year-old child used a social media application to identify adults seeking contact with minors.<\/p>\n Between February 17 and March 6, the agent exchanged messages with an app user identified as \u201cJay,\u201d who was later identified as Francis. After the agent informed Francis that the child was 13, Francis reportedly asked if she was comfortable talking to him and requested photos.<\/p>\n On March 5, the communication escalated as Francis questioned the \u201cchild\u2019s\u201d sexual history and discussed plans to meet in person. According to court records, Francis sent a text message stating his intentions. \u201cI can show you how to have sex …\u201d Francis wrote.<\/p>\n He also sent messages describing specific sexual acts he intended to perform during the meeting.<\/p>\n [DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks<\/a>]<\/p>\n Following these conversations, Francis boarded a bus in Jacksonville on March 6 to travel to the \u201cchild\u2019s\u201d purported residence. FBI agents arrested Francis in the vicinity of the location shortly after his arrival.<\/p>\n The Federal Bureau of Investigation offices in Jacksonville and Pensacola conducted the undercover operation and subsequent arrest.<\/p>\n Given this is a federal case, Action News Jax does not have access to Francis\u2019 mugshot.<\/p>\n The case is part of Project Safe Childhood, a Department of Justice initiative created in 2006 to address child sexual exploitation and abuse.<\/p>\n [SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter<\/a>] <\/p>\n Click here<\/a> to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, click here<\/a> to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and click here<\/a> to stream Action News Jax live.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A 25-year-old Jacksonville man has been indicted for attempting to entice a 13-year-old child to engage in sexual…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":190797,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[82653,116,118,117,89091,75629,4544],"class_list":["post-190796","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-child-sexual-exploitation","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-jonathan-francis","tag-sexual-acts","tag-undercover-operation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190796","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=190796"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190796\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/190797"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=190796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=190796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=190796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}