8 Men who Thought they were Meeting Children for Sex Arrested in Texas
ARLINGTON, TEXAS – Last week authorities arrested eight men who are charged with trying to solicit children for sex. The operation was carried out by Arlington, Texas police, the Texas Department of Public Safety and the Tarrant County Sheriff’s Department.
The men who were taken into police custody thought they were messaging online with 13 to 16 year old children, but were arrested when they showed up at a location in Arlington they arranged to meet up with the teens to have sex, police said according to a report by DallasNews.com.
The eight men who were arrested and charged with online solitication of a minor are: Age 60 Francisco Carreon, Age 24 Davion Carter; Age 25 Enrico Garcia, Age 19 Michael Owonifari, Age 46 Christopher Pintek, Age 23 Joshua Price, Age 36 Brian Watt, and Age 24 Christian Weitmann, according to DallasNews.com.
24 year old Davion Carter had outstanding warrants and was held on them, 25 year old Enrico Garcia is also facing a drug possession charge, and 23 year old Joshua Price is also facing charges of resisting arrest and assaulting a public servant. However, all eight men have been released from police custody after bonding out with their bail amounts.
38 year old Richard Wilson is a ninth man who was arrested, and faces drug and weapon charges, along with outstanding warrants. Mr Wilson transported one of the solicitation suspects to the meetup location, DallasNews.com reports.
10 people failed to show up at the meeting location, and police say more arrests could still be made.
DallasNews.com reports that Police Chief Will Johnson gave a statement and said, “The collaboration between Texas DPS, the Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office and Arlington PD demonstrates our commitment to identifying and arresting these individuals who prey on our most vulnerable victims, our children.”
“We will continue to partner with other law enforcement agencies with these types of operations to send a clear message to the criminal element that we will not tolerate this type of behavior in our community.”
