REPLAY: Florida AG James Uthmeier, Sheriff Grady Judd Announce 281 Child Predator Arrests

Thank you for being with us today and as you know this is not a surprise. This is one of the undercover operations that we do here at the Sheriff's Office joined by our colleagues, our city police departments, our not only city police departments but our state agents and our federal agents. And this is the single largest undercover operation we've ever done. Poke around and find out too. I'm honored today. To be joined by our Attorney General, James Uthmeyer, he'll be speaking in just a few minutes. Our Florida CFO, Blaise Angoria, he'll be speaking in a few minutes. We also have our homeland, our ICE homeland, ERO. Deputy Field Office Director David Gritty from the federal government speaking with us. He worked with us in this operation. And for those of you who may not know David Gritty, you should know him if you're in this business because he can move mountains. He can get things done at the federal level. And, of course, we have our NGOs, One More Child, Sinead Dressler, and Stacey Hamm, and they'll both be speaking. But in addition to that, we have Chris Nelson from the state attorney's office. Our State Attorney Brian Haas is normally here, but he's out of town and can't make it today. Lakewell's Police Chief Chris Velasquez, our Auburndale Police Deputy Police Chief Karen Ketchum, Bartow Police Department Captain Luke Hauser, Lakeland Police Assistant Chief Marvin Tarver is here with us today. But let me start with this pink picture here. It's all about locating the victims of human trafficking. Now, we thought this was a banner year in locating our victims of human trafficking. There's 11 that our NGOs were able to identify, and you're going to hear more about that from them later on. But the focus here is to go out into the underworld and look for those that want to prey upon our folks, our community. So we did two operations. We not only did the human trafficking operation, we did our child sex predator operation. So let me give you some data real quick. This was really remarkable work by our detectives. And when I say our detectives, I don't just mean our folks from the sheriff's office, but our partners as well. There were two operations at the same time. And that is a logistical nightmare unless you're very experienced or very good at what you do, and our folks are the best. But as a result, we made 281 total arrests, 239 human trafficking-related arrests. Our child sex predators, 31, ladies and gentlemen, 31 came, traveled to have sex with a child, and we're going to highlight a few of those today. In addition to that, there was prior charges. Now, some people go, oh, on the human trafficking operation, it's just a prostitution sting, and it's not that serious. Well, I think it's real serious when you think that those that showed up had a total of 798 previous criminal charges. In addition to that, we gave them 488 new charges just to take with them as kind of a present from us to them. We had 17 theme park employees arrested, 17, and that's important to remember. Yes, and who led the way? Disney. Disney had 13, Universal had four, and we're going to talk about a few of those later on today. But these are people that were face-to-face with our children in the different disciplines inside these two organizations. And you go, well, why do they work there? Well, that's where the children are, and they want to be near children. And as a result, we arrested them with a great deal of work. 32 were illegal aliens. That's right, they were in this country inappropriately. They came from Cuba, Peru, Italy, Venezuela, Mexico, Haiti, Honduras, Guatemala, Colombia. So far, 16 have been transferred over to ICE. The others are either in some stage of the process. David Gritty will talk more about that in a few minutes. But I want to read off, if you'll give me just a second before we get to our flashcards. When you look at the child predator operation and you look at the human trafficking operation, we made multiple arrests from not only outside of the county, but not only outside the state, but across the world. As I said before, Cuba, the Bahamas, Peru, Ecuador, Italy, Haiti, India, El Salvador, Venezuela, Jamaica, Mexico, Colombia, Honduras, Guatemala, the Ukraine, Philippines, Russia, Brazil, and then our states. Maryland, Georgia, Oklahoma, California, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia, South Carolina, Colorado, Massachusetts, New York, Mississippi, Maine, Wisconsin, Indiana, Illinois, Arizona, Alabama, Louisiana, Michigan. We had 239 arrests from Florida and 40 arrests from Polk County. Now, they knew better, and they showed up anyway, and they found out. Fool around, you find out. You poke around, you find out, and they found out. Thirty-six of these folks were married. At least they were as of the time that they were arrested. I don't know what their significant other thinks about them today. Here's an idea for you if you think that, oh, this is low-level, nonviolent, and we've heard all that before. Twenty-four of the suspects brought firearms. Twenty-four of the suspects brought firearms. So we had to take firearms from those that we were investigating. Twenty-two of them admitted to us that they were on federal assistance. Now I want you to focus in on this for a minute. And our CFO is going to talk a little more about this, but I want you to focus on this. You pay taxes, and then they provide federal assistance to these folks so that they can come and violate the law while you're all out working, making money for them. That's right, over $100,000 a year. This is what they admitted to. You see, the federal government hides that data. They don't share that with us, so I would suggest to you many more of them were receiving federal assistance. This is all we could document. Nine individuals were on probation. Thirty-one individuals had prior prostitution charges. And nine of these folks were caught in our operations before. They enjoyed it so much they showed up again for another opportunity to go to the jail. So we're going to start with the worst of the worst. And that's our child sex predators. And I'm going to lead with the number one candidate. This is Rashawn Creighton. He's 31 years of age. He's a head coach of the Davenport Titans. That's a youth football league. And the children that play on that youth football league are between 11 and 14 years of age. And they're part of the Mid-Florida Youth Conference of Football and Cheer. So guess who he showed up to have sex with? A 14-year-old little girl. The talk that he used was so graphic that we obviously can't release that to you here today. But he said, among other things, well, I can pick you up at school, and then we can have sex in the car. You see, we've got to be careful because just these texts will put me in jail. And then when he arrived at this location, He brought, among other things, a battery-charged sex toy and a lot of other play toys to go with that. Oh, did I tell you? He brought them in an Uber Eats delivery bag. You see, he used to deliver for Uber Eats. So the next time Uber Eats shows up at your house, I wonder what was in that Uber Eats bag just before your McDonald's or your Taco Bell. Yeah, think about that. I didn't let one of those rascals come to my house for anything in the world because they may be on their way to or from a sex predator operation. I know there's a lot of good, hard-working people. I have nothing to do with that at all, but you don't know who's who. Then there's Dane Tai. He's 24. He's from Jacksonville. He's active-duty Navy. He's a machinist mate. He told our undercover that he was 17. Newsflash, he's not 17. He's 24. He talked all the nasty stuff. He did. bragged to us after we arrested him that he's got a top secret clearance because of some of the work and the equipment that he works around in the military. Did you hear what I said? A top secret clearance. He drove from Jacksonville and he broke, brought condoms and he confessed, but he is a nasty, nasty guy. And then there's Robert Schultz. He's 67 years of age. He's retired from the fire Fire Department in New York, FDNY. He was there 28 years, and he came to have sex with a little boy. He asked us, are you law enforcement? And we told him, no. I guess we lied to him. And he said he would be the top. He said, I'll have all kinds of sex. Now, he's talking to what he thinks is a 13-year-old child. And then he wanted us to let him go after we arrested him. He said, do we have some of that professional courtesy? And we go. Well, we've got some professional customer service, you know, and we're going to, you know, give you customer service with a smile as we take you to jail because it makes our day when you're arrested. And then there's Colin Clacko, okay? I want you to get a view of this Colin Clacko. He was a former Disney Mickey Mouse character, okay? He had the high squeaky voice, too, by the way. He did, and he's about this big, and he may be the sickest. Nastiest person we've ever arrested. Yep, that's correct. He was into diapers, you know, diapers. And he had two backpacks full of diapers. He wanted to wear diapers. He wanted to put diapers on the children. And he wanted to do all kinds of nasty stuff, none of which we can talk about. Two backpacks full. But he planned to have a great time, you see. He said, I'm a little kinky and I'm a little naughty, and we can be kinky and naughty together. Now, of course, we can't talk about all the stuff he did, but he was very explicit with his perverted talk of what he wanted to do. Some of them were even Disney diapers. I guess he was writing for the brand. But I want to point out that he was no longer employed at Disney when this happened, but he was very proud. that he, at one time, was a Mickey Mouse character. Well, now he's a jailbird character, and that's where he needs to be, and he's fixed to be a state prison character upon his conviction. And then there's Adam Snyder. Adam Snyder works for Disney in the Toy Story land. You know, he's actually at the Roundup Rodeo restaurant. You know, not only is he at the Roundup Rodeo restaurant, he brought his ID card and had some of his clothes in the car. He wanted to have sex with a little boy. He said he liked to cuddle and kiss, and you will like it. So we've got a video here. Let me play that. You can't believe this. There's an ice cream truck coming by as we arrest him. What you're doing? You hear me? Can't make this stuff up. Yeah, the ice cream truck cruising by, playing the ice cream music. I don't think Adam ordered that, and we certainly didn't order it, but it was apropos. And by the way, Disney told us we have fired all of these people. Disney cooperated with us, and I'm grateful for that. They said we fired all of them. And then there's Colin Gormekin. He's 28. He's a Disney ride operator. The Slinky Dog Roller Coaster. Now, that just sounds nasty. Okay. He wanted to have sex with a 14-year-old boy. I think he was a slinky dog myself. He wanted to have perverted sex. And once again, we can't talk about all the language, but keep in mind, part of their infatuation is to describe what it is that they want to do with the children. And when we were dealing with this undercover, and we made it abundantly clear that... I'm only 14. He said, well, I'm inclusive of everybody. He was so excited, he didn't even bother taking his work uniform off before he showed up. So he is also locked up in prison. So I start with those because, to me, if we only arrested one child sex predator with all of the resources we put forward, it would have been a successful operation. But as you know, there's many, many more than that. But now I'll turn. To our human trafficking. Now, on our human trafficking, what's important to understand is we could not possibly talk about all of these people. I've taken just a few of them, and I'm starting with Eric Raymond. He's 40 years of age. He's from Winter Garden. He was or is a deputy sheriff with Orange County, Florida, assigned to school resource. And he's married, and he showed up. here to have sex with a prostitute. He was with the Orange County Sheriff's Office for six years and he came here for a quick visit, as he said. He confessed. He was a gentleman. I happened to be at the op when he came in and he goes, Sheriff, are you really going to put my picture up there? Here's your sign. I told him, oh yeah, we're going to air you out because you see, you're a law enforcement officer and people expect more of you. And we're going to make sure that we use your photograph. I contacted Sheriff John Mina, my friend from Orange County. Orange County's fortunate to have such a professional. He said, Grady, we'll be dealing with him like right now. Then he made this statement. Before y'all take me to jail, can I call my wife? Now, I'm thinking to myself that that is the very last person in the world you ought to be calling is your wife. But maybe she was more understanding. Well, apparently not, because mom had to bond him out of jail, but he tried. Then there's Alant Lizcano. She's a Hispanic female. She's 27. She's here illegally in the country. She is a prostitute. She left her two-year-old with the driver of the vehicle that brought her. Now, they didn't claim to know each other. You notice I said claimed. And the driver said he didn't know. Who the two-year-old was. So if you believe that on face value, she left her two-year-old in the car with this driver while she came in to have sex. We embed DCF with us. DCF is remarkable. They immediately took the child into protective custody, turned the child over to the grandmother, and we took both of them to the county jail. Then there's Alfredo Blanco, he's 29, he's a Hispanic male from Tampa. He was arrested last April in our sting, I mean our very last one, you know what I'm saying? And he's a convicted felon, and he was carrying a semi-automatic handgun. He claims to be a male prostitute, and he's one of those that admitted that he was receiving federal assistance. So he admits that he's getting federal money. Well, he goes around and sells himself as a male prostitute. And then there's Tony Rossman. He says he's self-employed. So what Tony's deal is, he took his wife to Walmart and said, Honey, while you go to Walmart, I'm going to go get a massage. Well, he didn't really lie. He kind of did, or that's what was his intent. He was going to come have a half-hour quick massage. And instead, we ended up having to, she didn't have her cell phone with her. Have some of her family go to Walmart and find her to give her a ride home because he was tied up. He was on his way to the county jail. Now, there's one that was interesting to me. We received an email at the office about Clarence Fluker. He's 53. He's from Leesburg. The only thing particularly interesting that stood out of all these people, he separated from his wife. And she said, I hope you feature him, Sheriff. Because, you see, he has a history of having sex with prostitutes. He has a history of being a serial sex addict. He has a history of unprotected sex, and you know where that can lead to. And I won't talk any more about that, but that's a clue. And he says he's a self-employed environmental response cleanup. So, Mrs. Fluker, here's your husband. And then here's the one that's shocking to me. Melissa Billinger's 54. She's from Altamont Springs, and she's a prostitute, and she's proud of it. And she came to provide sex, $300 for an hour. She says, my family knows what my profession is, you know. And, oh, by the way, I needed a ride over here, so my son, Corey Love, drove me over. He lives in Kissimmee. So what do you do when you drive your mom to a house to have sex? Do you say, go, Mom, make it quick, get a tip? Hurry up, we got another stop to make. He drove his mama, and his mama rode with him. It's just like, you can't make some stuff up. So I guess if you want to know why people do stupid stuff in life, well, when mama is encouraging, is saying, hey, son, you know, I got to go turn this trip. Could you give me a ride? I'm out of gas. Sure, mom, glad to help. I want gas money. Well, that got him arrested. And, of course, as I wrap up before I turn it over to the Attorney General, this is who advertised on Facebook. Now, you want to do something illegal, and you look at that and go, whoo, wake up the next morning, and there's the dude. Now, that's ugly as a mud fence, I would say. And after, here's your sign that what you think you're getting is not what you're getting. You could think you're getting this, and you get this, or you could think you're having sex, and you end up with us and a trip to the county jail. Well, and then there's this picture, and you go, hey, this kind of looks like a school teacher, and she's, you know, a mature person, you know what I mean? She's got it figured out, and you pick her up, and you take her home, and that turns out to be this. Whoa, daddy, something bad happened to me overnight. Obviously, I was blind last night, but I can see this morning, and things are not looking well. So, ladies and gentlemen, this is a clue. Remember this, when you go online seeking the services of a prostitute or wanting to attack our children, we're going to be there. And just like this photograph, you may think you're getting the librarian or the school teacher and you end up with this. Well, you may think you're getting one of these ladies or one of these guys and you end up with us and you go to jail and ultimately prison. I want to introduce to you our Attorney General James Uthmeyer. We're fortunate to have He puts the safety and security of the people of Florida up front and then up front, in front of up front, he puts up the safety and security of our children. He has fought for and works alongside and his prosecutors help and prosecute to make sure we hold people accountable that want to prey on our children. Also, those that want to really, on our human trafficking side, to traffic those that are vulnerable. those that need attention. So when we do one of these operations, one of my very first phone calls is to our Attorney General, for whom we're very proud of, because he is keeping us safe in Florida. General? Yeah, we're blessed in Florida to have the lowest crime rates in history, and these operations, as gut-wrenching as they can be, are part of the reason why. My office in a little over a year has been part of a record over 2,200 child predator arrests and we look forward to supporting the sheriff and the local state attorney on some of these cases as well. These 280 plus deviants, they thought they were going to find a victim. They thought they were going to find a prostitute, a victim of trafficking. They thought they were going to find little boys and girls. And thanks be to God, in this case, they found handcuffs. They found a detective on the other side. They found the back, cold, dark corner of a jail cell. But we've got to keep them there. I think the big takeaway this morning is that a lot of these are repeat offenders. There's over 700 prior charges, prior counts with these deviants. My team, we're going to prosecute every case to the absolute fullest penalty. We're going to go through all these, you know, these cases will be looking at varying charges of solicitation, prostitution, traveling to have sex with a minor, human trafficking. We will throw the book at every one of them. As the sheriff said, we already have some people that, you know, were locked up six months ago and got out. A lot of judges, they don't take it seriously when somebody's not actually engaging in physical abuse. No, little kids didn't actually get hurt in this one. Thanks be to God. But that was this one. What happens? When they're actually talking to a real child, when they're actually telling a child, I'll pick you up at school, and we can have sex in the car. What happens when we're not on the other side of that phone? So we need our judges to take this seriously. This is an example. When you let people off early, when you hand out light sentences, when you enable early release, they go back and do it again. And it endangers our families, endangers our kids. So we will be prosecuting every case to the fullest, maximum recommended penalties. We'll go through their files and everything. If they've got child porn, as many of these guys do, we'll bring more cases. We arrested somebody a couple days ago, and we brought over 100 charges. And somebody in the press asked me, well, why'd you do 100? Did you really want to look through all those videos? It's because I know that some judges want to go and cut the sentence in half or more. So yes, it's painful. Our team, our prosecutors, you got to go through some of the most horrific videos and photos and evidence, but we rack it up because we want these people off the streets for as long as possible, away from our kids. So we will throw the book at every one of these. We will keep them away for as long as possible. Here in Florida over the last year, we have doubled criminal prosecutions since I've been attorney general. We've taken down three times the number of drug trafficking cases. We've handed out over four times the penalties for child predators. And that's not gonna stop here in Florida. You can see why I have so much respect and admiration for our Attorney General, because he's all about supporting all of the good people of the state of Florida and helping us keep Florida safe and holding those accountable. And some might say, Blaise Ngoya, the CFO, and we're here in an operation such as this. Blaise, since he's become the CFO, is at every one of these operations with his teams. Because he recognizes how important it is that this is a total attack on those that commit crime. And Mr. CFO, we appreciate what you have done, your team has done with us. And as a result, we're safer in the state of Florida. Come speak to our folks. Thank you. Good morning, everyone. I'm Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ngole of the state of Florida. Before I start, I just want to thank the sheriff and all the law enforcement partners that were part of this operation. Thank you. You know, it is very important that we not only put away these scumbags, but make sure that we do events like this in the media to let everyone know that there are actual repercussions if you're going to human traffic or you're going to attack children. Thank you. Some of you may be wondering why is the CFO of the state of Florida here speaking at this press conference, because I had made a commitment to this sheriff as I've made a commitment to other sheriffs around the state that our law enforcement agency, we have 300 sworn law enforcement officers at DFS, and their job primarily is to prosecute, to investigate, and arrest financial crimes. But I do not want them sitting by idly. I have made it a hallmark to sort of redefine the role of the CFO's office here. And with that, use every available resource that we have to help protect the community. So we had 12 people on site, as we did in the previous sting operations, to help put away these bad actors. Thank you. Some of these criminals, especially the ones that are targeting our young kids for sex online, are some of the worst of the worst in humanity, and they deserve every single minute and second of the jail sentence, the prison sentence that they are going to get. There's no other way to put that. It is unfortunate, but we have reached the portion where this is sort of like an epidemic. This is not just a once in a while thing. Sheriff, I think the number was 281 arrests made over the course of a couple of days and all the planning, everything. That's one county in one state in the United States of America. That means that a lot of this is going on in everyday communities, and you may not realize it. I mean, how many times do we have to sit here? The last one, the sheriff put the picture up of Santa Claus. Remember that? This time, there was a picture of a, what was it, a teacher, a gym teacher, or is it? A coach. A coach, I'm sorry, a coach. These are people in positions of trust. We are entrusting them to be around our children, the theme park employees. We are entrusting them to be around our children and They keep on failing us. What every parent needs to understand is that you need to watch the kids, especially if they're online, because you may not realize it, but they are being targeted. 281 just in this county alone. It is important that we remain vigilant and make sure that we prosecute these people to the fullest extent of the law. That's why I'm happy that A.G. Uthmeyer is doing what he is doing. Again, Again, letting people know that there were actually consequences. We're hearing stories of a lot of these people that we are arresting getting public assistance. The fraud epidemic in this country is getting to be at mass. Just yesterday, we were in Miami. And we arrested someone for snap fraud. He was posing as an owner and operator of, I think, a grocery store. Billed the taxpayers of a million dollars, just one person, and then sent that money overseas to Ramallah. And here we have the people who are on this board right here who are actually taking public assistance fraud. We are paying for them to go out and commit crimes, if you think it like that. So when I say that I am serious about cracking down on waste, fraud, abuse, and corruption, I mean it. In the 16 months that I have been CFO, we've arrested nearly 1,400 people from everything from insurance fraud to staging automobile accidents, escrow fraud. I'm so serious about rooting out waste, fraud, abuse, and corruption. We actually... We actually arrested 14 of our own state employees, and I'm just so happy and thankful that we at DFS, Department of Financial Services, and the CFO's office are able to partner with this to help put the bad guys in jail. Sheriff, I want to continue thanking you. I want to personally thank all the law enforcement officers, all the NGOs who have been part of this. This is important work. It's unfortunate we have to do this, but we are unapologetic in doing so. So with that, I want to thank everyone. Let's continue putting these bad guys away. Thank you very much. And once again, when you see us all here, these good things don't just happen. Good people make good things happen, and we partner. And we would not be complete without our NGOs. One more child. And what we do is on our human trafficking operations, we embed them with... So that the moment that we have someone taken in custody, that they start counseling and reviewing to see if they are a victim of human trafficking. And as you see the ones that are pinked out there, we believe we have found and rescued 11 victims of human trafficking. That is a huge deal, a huge deal. So first we'll hear from Sinead. Sinead, come on up. Good morning, Sheriff. Thank you. Good morning, everyone. My name is Saini Dressler. I serve as the Senior Director of Anti-Trafficking Operations with One More Child. For more than 120 years, One More Child has been committed to protecting children and strengthening families. Today, that mission includes reaching survivors of human trafficking, responding to crisis, and helping people find a path forward for safety, stability, and healing. First, I want to thank Sheriff Grady Judge and his entire team for trusting One More Child to be part of this operation. We value this partnership and the opportunity. To stand alongside law enforcement to ensure that people impacted by exploitation receive the care, compassion, and support they deserve. During the operation, our team engaged with 93 individuals, supported them through their first court appearances, and continued daily outreach through jail visits. And so far, 18 of those have agreed to receive services. These are important first steps and our commitment continues beyond the operation itself. Our work is not simply to show up during the operations but it is to continue showing up afterwards. We know that accepting help takes trust and people may be afraid, unsure or not ready to take that step but we meet them where they are without judgment and continue to offer support when they are ready. Ending human trafficking is going to take all of us. It takes strong partnerships, informed communities, and a commitment to making sure people impacted by exploitation are never left alone to navigate the road ahead. At One More Child, we believe that every life is valuable. Every person deserves dignity. And no one should ever be defined by the hardest moments of their life. We also believe that survivors must have a voice in this work. Their experience and leadership help shape how we serve and remind us why this mission matters. It is my privilege to introduce one of those leaders. Her name is Stacey Hamm. Thank you. Good morning. I want to start by thanking Sheriff Grady Judd, all the detectives, law enforcement, DCF, and all the community partners that we got to work alongside during this operation. Every time that our team has an opportunity to be a part of these operations, I am always walking away reminded of just how there is so much work to still be done. More and more, we are encountering individuals who are simply struggling to survive. Many individuals are having to decide how to put food on the table, keep a roof over their head, pay their bills, or make that incredibly hard decision of how can I even receive medical care for all the medical needs that I currently have. And I think that it's time for us to recognize that so many of the individuals, many of them do not have options, yet that we believe that they're making choices because they have so many options to pick from, but they have very limited options and resources. Nobody should ever have to feel that their only option for survival is allowing someone to purchase access to their body. And no one grows up dreaming of being exploited. As someone who brings their own lived survivor experience into this work, I could have never imagined that some of the hardest moments that I had to grow up and face would be moments that I could then walk alongside other survivors. And while I'm incredibly grateful for this opportunity, I'm also reminded that when it comes to identifying exploitation, there's only one part of the response. What happens next matters even more. We need more housing opportunities. We need more accessible services, more long-term programs, and more resources that give incredible, meaningful options beyond the circumstances that so many are facing. And this is something that I'm so incredibly grateful that we do here at One More Child. We recognize that these needs don't exist in isolation. Through our wraparound services, we have the opportunity to step into these gaps, walk alongside individuals, and help them address the very needs that led them to have to make or be forced into some of these situations. Vulnerability can affect and impact every single person, and that is how our traffickers are looking to find them. They are looking to exploit these vulnerabilities. Because sometimes what someone needs most is not another person telling them they have options, but someone willing to come alongside them and walking them through these options, helping them make these decisions and to navigate the system. We cannot continue to tell people that there is a way out if we're not also willing to walk alongside them and allow them safe options to go somewhere. And while I'm so incredibly grateful for the work that we get to do, I also have to recognize that not one single organization can offer every need. It takes every single one of us up here for continued collaboration, community investment, and a willingness to recognize that our responsibility doesn't end when this operation is over. There are so many needs that we are encountering that don't end just today. And my hope today is that we will walk away remembering That behind every number is a person, is a story, and someone that deserves to be seen, valued, and heard, and given an opportunity to fight for the life that God gave them And again, I just want to thank you so much. Several years ago, when I first asked our folks to bring the NGOs into this undercover operation to embed them with us, you know, we're cops So who do you trust? Other cops. And they go, oh, they're civilians You know, what if they leak? And I go, listen, we're going to try this And if it doesn't go as well as I predict it will go, then we don't have to do it but once. That was several years ago. We wouldn't think of one of these operations without our NGOs there to provide services immediately. They have proven to be not only superb, but above that. They have been the element that allows us to provide the 360 or the wraparound service. So as I close, and any one of us will accept questions today let me leave you with this Our Attorney General is simply the very best and you don't have to wonder if he and his team are going to be involved because they are every time, and they're eager to help Our CFO, he has blazed new trails, no pun intended And that we're going to help Protect Florida 360 and then we're going to spin off of that and look at the fraud waste, and abuse of those that are receiving federal or state assistance, and maybe they shouldn't be because what they're doing is illegal as well. So I'm thankful for these two gentlemen that are with us, as well as our colleagues from the federal and state level. Now, you think that I've forgotten Gritty, David Gritty, but he's going to speak to us. And he's going to wrap up before we have questions because I want you to meet the man that is game on every day to help us Thank you, Sheriff, Mr. Attorney General, and Mr. CFO. My name is David Gritty. I'm the Acting Deputy Field Office Director for Enforcement and Removal Operations here in Miami The Tampa office has once again partnered with Sheriff Judd and Polk County to reveal the hidden criminal activity of prostitution, human trafficking, and child exploitation. The Tampa deportation officers supported the operation by interviewing all foreign-born individuals encountered throughout the operation. We interviewed over 65 foreign-born people and placed over 30 detainers on removable aliens Every single one of them will come into ICE custody upon the disposition of their criminal charges. The participation of ICE in this investigation ensures that the immigration laws are enforced alongside the criminal laws. ERO helped ensure that individuals who pose a public safety risk are identified and immigration enforcement actions are executed. One particular arrest during this operation underscores the importance of this partnership. Mr. Sanchez Rangel, an illegal alien from Venezuela, was arrested for traveling to meet a minor to have sex with a child. Sanchez entered the United States illegally in August of 2023. He was issued a notice to appear before an immigration judge and released under the policies of the previous administration. This operation demonstrates the value of strong partnerships. Together with more than 325 287G partners across the state of Florida, ERO Miami and the field office lead the way in immigration enforcement across the country. I'll just thank you again for our strong partnership with the sheriff's office here and across the state of Florida. Thank you. Now, before you leave, before you leave, see, he's never used a card before. Now, this is my opportunity to help my fed buddy out. You see, you didn't like this. You have to stick that card up there. But this is the bad guy who came into this country illegally that these guys are removing. And he came here illegally and tried to have sex with a child. If it weren't for his team and our team all working together... Standing in the gap between good and evil, this guy would have sexually abused a child. And I'll assure you that if he's had that opportunity in the past, he already has sexually abused children in this country. That's not acceptable to abuse children any place in the world. But our partner here is going to make sure that once he's finished with us, which will be a long time from now. That he'll leave this country and never have a chance to be in contact with a child again. So thank you, my friend. Questions? That's part of the follow-up investigation. Obviously, we've been working to round up all of this. But we know people that are supervisors of that program. And it's a solid, very hands-on... A group of wonderful family men and women that are in charge of that. They are absolutely mortified by the action of this head coach of this team. They're taking the appropriate action and they're totally cooperating with us. David Jolly to schedule an event here next week as to the Republicans running for statewide office. Look, I think a lot of people vote early. A lot of people want to vote on Election Day. You've seen some shifts in trends. People that used to vote by mail have either lost confidence or decided to go another direction. So there's a lot of votes outstanding. It looks like a lot of people haven't voted yet that typically do, you know, every single election cycle. So I hope everybody will go out and vote. People, they put their lives on the line and fight for the country overseas to give us this right. So I hope the good people of Polk County will take advantage of it. Follow up on that. I'm in a sort of unique position because I used to be chairman of the Republican Party of Florida also. I will tell you that the trends have been a lot of Republicans are voting very late during early voting, and a lot of them now are voting on Election Day. So the expectation is that we're going to increase the lead as far as Republicans are concerned. Today, through early voting, we'll see a bigger turnout on Saturday. And then if history holds, and I'm pretty sure that it will, you will see massive Republican Voter turnout on Election Day. Communication with the status from Universal, but I have no reason to believe that Universal won't do what's right. We've worked with them in the past, and, you know, they employ thousands of people. But the reality, they can't do a polygraph, but they could do psychological work. And we know that people who have a proclivity to be abused children also are entertained by being around children. So they're going to go to the park to work. The question is, what are we doing, and what is the park doing proactively inside of the park to move these people out? We don't get to see what they may be doing proactively to deal with people that comes to their attention. We don't know that. All we know is that we see them, and we see them almost without exception in every undercover operation. Sir? Certainly. And the bottom line to it is this is not a secret. We tell everybody we do these undercover operations. So you have a choice. You cannot violate the law or you can violate the law and we'll put you in jail and prison. General? Yeah. I just want to add, I mean, this is a big wake-up call for parents. Every time we do one of these, we do one of these somewhere in the state pretty much every week. It's theme park employees. It's... Teachers, it's coaches, it's people that run, you know, faith and community groups, it's ministers, it's everybody. It's a wake-up call for parents that you've got to be in your kids' lives. You've got to know who they're around. If you're going to let them out of your sight in the presence of another adult, you better know who that person is through and through because it could be anybody. It was a Santa Claus in this area in one of the last. Uh, announcement. So just a wake up call for parents. It's gross. These people that are out there, they want your kids. They want to violate them in the worst of ways. And if you're not in your kids' lives, um, then you're part of the problem. Any other questions? Y'all are super awesome. I appreciate you covering this because listen, the, these folks, you know, they're not all living under rocks. I had several of them say, Oh, I follow you on TikTok. I watch you. Well, why did you show up? Well, you know. They're bad people that make bad choices, and we put them in a good jail and prosecute them with great prosecutors. So at the end of the day, look around and find out. Take care. Oh, by the way, go to the polls and vote for the candidate of your choice. Use that right that people died for so you could go vote for the person of your choice. Please show up at the polls. Take care.