So, we're here this afternoon to announce the results of Operation Cyber Shield. This was a multi-day undercover operation conducted by the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office and the Internet Crimes Against Children, or ICAC as it's known, task force. Over the past few days, detectives arrested 15 men on 25 different charges related to their effort to meet and have sex with children as young as 4 years old. The charges include traveling to meet a minor for sex, solicitation of a minor, attempted capital sexual battery, and harmful trans- transmission of obscene material to a minor. All the people we arrested are listed here. I'm not going to name the names. There's 15 of them. Uh the public information office, when they send out the media alert, will identify all of them with uh relevant identifying information and the charges as that goes out later today. As I mentioned earlier this year during the governor's bill signing enacting harsher penalties for those who view and transmit child pornography, the number of child pornography cases has skyrocketed over the last couple of years. Simply put, the creation, transmission, and viewing of child pornography is rampant. There are just simply way too many sick people among us who want to view children. And when I talk about children, I mean real children. I mean children and kids who are 4, 5, and 6 years old who they want to view engaged in sexual acts. The consumers of this junk, and that's what it is, junk, the predators who like watching young kids engaged in sex acts, and who then go online to actually meet the kids to have sex with them, drive the child pornography pornography industry. And as I mentioned a few months ago, in the last year alone here in Pinellas County, we've arrested over 200 different people on child pornography charges and view involving over 1,000 400 different counts of possessing or distributing child pornography. Let's think about that for a minute. That's about 1,400 different photos and videos of kids, young kids, mostly mostly in the 5 to 12-year-old range, engaged in perverse sex acts for the pleasure of adults who seek, obtain, and watch these videos. This is nuts. It really is. And it ruins kids' lives. But what is even worse is when the people who view this junk, these videos of kids involved in sex, and then act under urge to have sex themselves with these young children. And we always said that one leads to the other, and this operation is proof that that's what happens. And over the last few days, Pinellas County Sheriff's Office detectives and ICAC members conducted this [snorts] undercover operation where detectives posed online as young kids, and men solicited the kids, who were really the detectives, for the purposes of having sex. I'm going to give you some of the examples of the conduct engaged by some of these 15 people. First one we're going to talk about is a guy named Juan Morales. Morales was arrested after arriving at a convenience store parking lot to meet who he thought was a 14-year-old child and engaged the 14-year-old in sexual intercourse. Morales traveled here to Pinellas County from Palmetto, down in Manatee County. Morales admitted he knew he was traveling to meet a 14-year-old girl and that he requested vaginal intercourse and oral sex from the girl. Morales had child porn, as I said, go figure, because one leads to the other. He had child porn saved on his cell phone. Morales is a Guatemalan national. Morales was previously deported, again, go figure, from the United States back in 2018, and he reentered the United States without permission. Nonetheless, uh despite unlawful entry, >> [snorts] >> he's claiming asylum. And those proceedings are currently pending. We notified ICE. Another one is Gregory McKinney, and we arrested him after he arrived at a location where he agreed to meet a 7-year-old child to engage in sexual intercourse. McKinney traveled from St. Petersburg. He negotiated with who he thought over this internet chat with the undercover detective who he thought was the father of a 7-year-old to have sex with the 7-year-old. McKinney, during the chat, expressed desire to perform oral sex on the child. >> [snorts] >> And when he was arrested, McKinney had numerous received photographs of penises on his cell phone along with other child pornography. Now, Robert Schweikert, who is 86 years old, was arrested after arriving at a hotel on US 19, where he agreed to meet a father offering his 4-year-old and his 7-year-old children to engage in sexual intercourse with this 86-year-old man. Schweikert expressed his desire to perform oral sex on the children and to take photographs of their penises. Schweikert is from Palm Harbor. This next one, Michael Rosen, was arrested after arriving at a gas station parking lot where he agreed to meet a 14-year-old child to engage in sexual intercourse. Additionally, several pictures were sent by him of his penis in the chat with undercover detectives leading up to the meeting. Rosen is from Tarpon Springs, and he is a lawyer who practices family and personally in personal injury law in Tampa. As you can see on his page here for his law firm, and we have it up here, shows what he says he cares about kids. It says divorces happen, but children should not have to suffer or be exposed to their parents' litigation during the process. Our firm is committed to putting the children first. You know, let me tell you and I've got here and I and I can't share this with you. I I just can't do it. This is pages of what the chats actually were between these people and the undercover detectives. And the explicit stuff, and if any of you want to see it afterwards, I'll show it to you, but I can't talk about it. You all would never print this or publish it or broadcast it. It is just gross stuff according from according to and from Rosen, who says he's this lawyer who practices family law, who's looking out for kids. So, it's just awful. Of course, we reported his arrest to the Florida Bar. Christopher Carlson was arrested after arriving at a location in Palm Harbor, where he agreed to meet a 14-year-old to again engage in sexual intercourse. During the chat conversation, Carlson acknowledged the juvenile's age and stated that he wanted to breed him. Carlson traveled from Palm Harbor to Palm Harbor from Clearwater. At the time of his arrest, he was found to have in his possession Viagra, personal lubricant, and a sex toy, plus methamphetamine. So, this is just one operation over a few days. And what is probably most troubling and should be most troubling to everyone in the community, this is one operation over a few days where we actually arrested these people. This isn't their first rodeo. This isn't the first time they did this. You can tell from these chats and these communications and their actions that they've done this many times in the past, sadly and so sadly successfully, they've had these meetings with these people with these kids and engaged in sex. And that's the most troubling part about how often this occurs throughout the community every single day where people are meeting. And it's mind-boggling how parents, and I guess we'd use that term mostly, sell their four, five, and six-year-olds for sex. So, we're going to continue to do these operations. I want to recognize all the dedicated law enforcement officers who do the very difficult job of investigating these child sexual abuse cases and have to deal with this every single day. But the public needs to know that we're out here. Uh we're going to continue to investigate the child pornography cases. We're going to continue continue to do these operations uh and uh arrest these people and these predators and hopefully put them where they belong, which is in prison. So, uh anybody has any questions, I'll answer them. >> Yes, Sheriff. What's your message to parents? >> Again, with the child porn, you know, and with these in in the online with these guys are doing and then they turn it into these chats. And some of it's with the kids themselves, obviously the 14-year-olds, etc. is is that you got to know what your kids are doing. You got to put controls in place. You have to you know, you got to in some cases, as they say, you got to be a helicopter parent. You got to watch. You got to know what's happening. Because [snorts] if you don't, your kids are vulnerable and they're going to end up meeting guys like these at 13, 14, 15 years old in parking lots. And you know, if you're whoever I I don't even know what to say about the parents who are taking the four, five, and six-year-olds and selling them to these guys and bringing them so that they can engage in sex with it. You know, people just have to be eyes wide open. This stuff is out there. It's happening. It happens every single day. It's troubling, to say the least. People just have to be uh dil- diligent, vigilant, be aware, and make sure you know what your kids are doing. >> At that point, are you still doing the partnership with Parent Project that was announced last year with the annual free subscription for parents and all? >> Through the Pinellas County schools and all, yes, that's still in place, yeah. Yeah, and that's a good point. That's a very good tool for parents to be able to watch and be vigilant about what their kids are doing because these guys are predators and they don't care. And these kids are vulnerable, so I wish truly there was something we could do to curtail it more, but as as I said, the numbers show that it's it's not getting better, it's getting worse. But we're going to do everything we can to tamp it down, but this is one of those things you know, you know, we got burglaries in the neighborhood, we can go put cruisers in the neighborhood, we can put cops out there, and we can prevent it. All this is happening behind the curtain. So, all we can do is what we are doing with the child pornography investigations and doing these kind of operations, and hopefully picking them off one at a time and they spend a significant amount of time in prison. >> Every situation you gave was very disturbing, but you really singled out Greg Lozo. >> Uh-huh. >> Talk to me more about why that specific case stood out to you all the most. >> Well, because he's in a position of trust. You know, he's a lawyer who especially practices family law and claims to have concern about kids who are in, you know, again, vulnerable positions and in troubling positions within families where you have divorces and you have things going on where it could harm the kids, and he claims that his interest is looking out for the kids. You know, like I said, I won't share it, but I'm sitting here reading the stuff that that guy who claims to want to look out for kids, what he said he wanted to do to these boys, it's gross. So, and he's in a position of trust. He's a lawyer. People would go to him and trust him. It's like going to a doctor, going to a lawyer, going to anybody else. You you should have some confidence that these people have some level of integrity and some level of genuine care. Not that not not saying that and then saying this. >> Did your investigation find any AI-generated photos that you could involve in your >> No, not in this not that I know of. There there weren't any. There there were some people who were claiming some of it during that, but there was nothing that I know of about it. Yeah. All right, thanks everybody. Appreciate it.