ALAMANCE COUNTY, N.C. — Alamance County Sheriff Terry Johnson, along with Law Enforcement Executives from Durham and Orange counties, will share the results of their latest operations during Tuesday's press conference.
Their latest operation, called Operation Cupid's Arrow-Spartan Shield, is designed to protect children from online predators (sexual exploitation) and registered sex offenders.
The first stage was Cupid's Arrow. Deputies described this stage as having a focus on vice crimes and sex crimes. This stage was operated in February 2023.
The second stage was Spartan Shield. Deputies said this stage was focused on sex offenders. This stage was conducted in March 2023.
During the Cupid's Arrow stage, undercover deputies made contact with 25 suspects. They claim that during all 25 online interactions when the suspects discovered the decoy was 14 years old and lived in Alamance County, all suspects dropped communications.
Next, the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigations (SBI) joined on the operation and with deputies contacted 37 more targets. Deputies claim all but two of those suspects refused to come to Alamance County because of past operations. The two suspects that did come to Alamance County were charged with several counts of solicitation of prostitution.
During both operations, deputies said they opened four Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) cases. All four cases were the result of tips that led to search warrants. The search warrants led to finding Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) and led to the arrest of three adults and petitioning of one juvenile for possession, deputies said.
As part of the Spartan Sheild operation, deputies verified the addresses of 306 out of the 389 registered sex offenders in Alamance County. By doing this, deputies said they did impromptu checks for registry violations and parole violations.
This resulted in 10 sex offenders being charged with felony registry violations, and 1 registered sex offender arrested with federal charges.
Guns and drugs were also found during the operations.
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