A seven-day undercover operation run by the Polk County Sheriff's Office ended with 281 arrests, and 17 of the people arrested told detectives they work at Central Florida theme parks or resorts, the agency said.
Sheriff Grady Judd and Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier announced the results Friday at a news conference in Winter Haven. The operation, called "Polk Around and Find Out II," ran two stings at once: one aimed at adults who arranged to meet children for sex, the other at the commercial sex trade and human trafficking.
The numbers
The sheriff's office release sorts the arrests into three groups: 239 involving prostitution offenses, which covers people accused of paying for sex, offering it, or helping or transporting others; 31 that it classified as "child sexual predators"; and 11 other arrests.
The attorney general's office counted slightly differently, listing 32 arrests in the sting focused on adults traveling to meet a child and 249 in the trafficking sting, among them 117 people accused of buying sex and 122 accused of prostitution.
Altogether, the people arrested were hit with 488 new charges, 198 of which are felonies, according to both agencies.
In the child-focused sting, detectives posed online as 13- and 14-year-olds or as a child's guardian, and people who traveled to the meeting spot were taken into custody, according to the sheriff's office. Charges listed in its release include traveling to meet a minor, computer solicitation of a child or of a guardian, and attempted lewd battery on a minor.
Under Florida law, traveling to meet a minor is a second-degree felony with a maximum of 15 years in state prison, the attorney general's office said.
Theme-park workers
According to the sheriff's office, 17 suspects said they were employed by area theme parks or resorts, among them Walt Disney World and Universal Studios, and seven of those were arrested in the child sting. Judd told reporters that Disney employed 13 of the 17 and Universal four, CBS News reported.
Judd also said Disney cooperated with investigators and told him it had fired the employees, according to CBS News, which said it had asked both companies for comment. This newsroom did not find a public statement from Disney or Universal.
