JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Twenty-four men were arrested after allegedly trying to solicit sexual contact from who they thought were children in the Jacksonville area.
Their arrests come as a result of a six-day multi-agency operation called Operation Rescue our Children.
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Its goal was to identify and arrest suspects who solicit sexual acts from children using electronic devices.
According to JSO, the operation took place from May 13-18, and the men arrested were as young as 21 years old and as old as 61 years old.
"Undercover detectives posing as children chatted online with adults," Jacksonville Sheriff T.K. Waters said Thursday. “These adults solicited sexual activity and committed to engage in sex acts with purported minors at pre-arranged locations.”
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Among the people arrested were Venezuelan National Oscar Orlando Perozo Torbello, who is not a U.S. Citizen, and registered sex offender Kyle Judd.
Judd had been previously arrested in 2016 by JSO in Operation Blue Hawk. He was convicted in 2017 and was sentenced to less than two years in prison.
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Former JSO civilian employee Gregory Bethel was also arrested. Bethel worked at JSO since 2017 and was employed by the agency at the time of his arrest.
“Bethel’s arrest shocks the conscience of this agency, and JSO is pleased to no longer count Bethel as an agency employee,” Waters said.
According to Florida Health Charts website, the rate of children experiencing sexual violence in 2024 was higher in Duval than the state as a whole.
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Locally, 41.5 out of every 100,000 children experience some kind of sexual violence. That’s nearly double the statewide rate.
“These people are targeting kids, young children in our communities, victimizing our kids and the young children in our communities,” Waters said. “And we just can’t stand for it. We’re not going to stand for it.”
There’s no timeline for when any other arrests are expected to be made stemming from this operation, but Waters said he hopes they will soon.
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