ATLANTA – A high school band director. A youth group leader. A fireman. A county leader.
All are among the 82 people, including 31 in Georgia, who have been arrested and accused of sexually exploiting children in a multistate sting.
The sting, dubbed Operation Southern Impact III, was spread over three days recently and across eight southern states from Florida to West Virginia.
Channel 2’s Rikki Klaus was outside the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, where she learned that Georgia had the most arrests of the eight states involved.
GBI Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force Commander Debbie Garner said the operation focused on people who possess and distribute child pornography and those who are sexually exploiting children in other ways using technology and the internet.
“We were targeting material that was the most violent sexual abuse material involving infants and toddlers,” Garner said. “It is as horrific as you can imagine.”
Garner said the material is often in the form of videos.
“We were focused on those who were collecting and viewing that content for sexual gratification,” Garner said.
Most of the leads started as cybertips, Garner said.
See the rest at: Child Sex Ring
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