Three Walt Disney World employees, a registered nurse and two military veterans were among 17 suspects arrested in an undercover sting targeting suspected child predators in Central Florida, according to reports.
The operation, conducted from July 27 to Aug. 1, used undercover officers posing as children online and uncovered communications that sought sex acts with youths believed to be as young as 13 and 14, the Polk County Sheriff’s Office announced in a news release.
The suspects, who are mostly from Florida, range in age from 26 to 47 years old, and some have previous criminal histories, WSVN reported. One of the accused is from California.
Each allegedly showed up individually at a home in Polk County to meet children, and some of them also sent pornographic images beforehand, investigators said, according to WSVN.
“These are nasty, nasty people,” said Polk Sheriff Grady Judd, according to Fox 13. “We can’t even use the words that they used. We obviously can’t show the pictures and video clips that they sent to what they thought were 13-year-old little girls and little boys.”
One of the Disney employees, identified as 26-year-old Navy veteran Kenneth Javier Aquino, told authorities that he worked as a lifeguard at Animal Kingdom Lodge after he arrived at the home dressed in a Disney-issued polo shirt, swimming trunks and Crocs, reports said.
He and the other 16 suspects face lengthy prison terms for a combined 49 felony charges and two misdemeanors, including traveling to meet a minor for sex, attempted lewd battery and use of a computer to seduce a child.
Disney World has yet to issue a statement on the matter, according to reports.
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