OCALA, Fla. – Seven men who thought they were making arrangements to have sex with children have been arrested in an online sting operation, authorities said.
Dubbed "Operation Can't Touch This," undercover investigators with the Marion County Sheriff's Office, the Ocala Police Department and other law enforcement agencies posed as children between the ages of 13 to 15 or as the guardians of those children.
The men were arrested after traveling to Ocala to have sex with the child they thought they had been messaging online, investigators said.
“Wrongdoers are all around us, but these individuals are pure evil,” Marion County Sheriff Billy Woods said. “We cannot and will not set aside our relentless efforts of pursuing these predators who prey on our precious children. These evildoers are now the prey and we are the hunters who will bring them to justice.”
One of the men, 72-year-old Donald Willingham, thought he was traveling to have sex with a nonverbal disabled 13-year-old girl, investigators said.
When deputies arrested Willingham at the arranged meeting spot they said the found condoms, a sleeping bag and rope in his car.
Several of the men sent inappropriate photos of themselves to undercover investigators, according to the Marion County Sheriff's Office.
The others arrested in the sting operation were Nathan Collins, Anthony Michael Guiliani, Nicholas Samuel Rogers, Christopher Molinaro, Geoffrey Johnson and Charles A. Smith.