By Kevin Hendricks, The Paper. — A 22-year-old Rio Rancho man is among 10 men facing felony charges after a state undercover operation targeting adults who try to lure children online.
The New Mexico Department of Justice’s Internet Crimes Against Children unit ran Operation Midnight Harvest from Oct. 15 to 17. Investigators posed as minors using decoy accounts. The men allegedly solicited those accounts and arranged to meet, the agency announced Monday. No real children took part.
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| Attorney General Raúl Torrez. (NMDOJ) |
Prosecutors charged each man with child solicitation by electronic communication device, a third-degree felony that carries up to three years in prison and a $5,000 fine. One Los Lunas man also faces a misdemeanor charge of resisting, evading or obstructing an officer.
Attorney General Raúl Torrez called the sting the latest step in his office’s push to track down online predators.
“We are going to do everything in our power to make kids safer online,” Torrez said.
The defendants range in age from 20 to 41. Five live in Albuquerque, two in Los Lunas and one each in Rio Rancho, Colorado Springs and New Jersey. Albuquerque police, the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office, the FBI, Santa Fe police and Edgewood police joined the operation.