Seven Arrested in Sting Operation Targeting Internet Crimes Against Children

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Images: John Dutch, Joshua Kaminoff, Patrick Hamilton, Andrew Lee, Abel Maldonado, Ivan Sandoval-Reyes and Lamar Sharp (Prince William County Police Department).

A police sting operation, targeting individuals soliciting children for sexual acts online, has resulted in the arrests of seven men from the Washington area, the Prince William County police announced Thursday.

The sting operation “was conducted in a controlled environment and at no time involved actual children,” the Prince William police said in a statement.

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The suspects arrested include John Andrew Dutch, 25, of 9360 River Crest Road in Manassas; Patrick Ryan Hamilton, 34, of 6104 Pond Lily Court in Burke; Joshua Kaminoff, 39, of 2341 Dulles Station Blvd., Apt. 206, in Herndon; Andrew Yun Lee, 41, of 15100 Danehurst Circle in Gainesville; Abel Maldonado, 30, of 45 2nd St. in Lothian, Md.; Ivan Sandoval-Reyes, 21, of no fixed address; and Lamar A. Sharp, 28, of 9800 Montyville Drive in Manassas.

All of the suspects listed above were charged with attempted indecent liberties with children and using a communication device to facilitate certain offenses involving children, the police said. Maldonado was also charged with attempting to produce child pornography.

The arrests resulted from an investigation conducted in April and May by the Northern Virginia/DC Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. It included detectives from the Prince William County and Manassas City Police Departments.

The sting operation “was conducted proactively and was not in response to any specific incident,” the Prince William police said.

Undercover detectives used an undisclosed online site and posed as underage juvenile females. A number of men contacted the detectives and, during the course of communications, solicited sexual acts, the police said.

These conversations took place through electronic means over several days. Each suspect then arranged to meet an undercover detective at a public location in Prince William County. Once there, task force members arrested the individual without incident, police said.

As part of the investigation, the task force obtained search warrants and conducted searches of residences and vehicles belonging to the suspects.