According to Fox News.com, two teachers and
two other school employees were among 50 people arrested as part of an online
child-sex sting in central Florida,
MyFoxOrlando.com reports.
"Operation Cardea" targeted people who use the Internet to
sexually exploit children, the Seminole County Sheriff's Office said, and the
suspects were arrested over the past week, including four men arrested late
Sunday night.
The list of those arrested includes two local school teachers and two other
employees at local schools.
Jorge Daniel Ferreira, a science teacher at Ocoee Middle School,
was one of those arrested. Orange County Schools officials tell Fox 35 that
Ferreira has been with the school district since 2002 and passed a Florida
Department of Law Enforcement background check when he was hired.
Also arrested were David Miller, a translator with Orange County Schools;
Duncan St. Gelais, a teacher at New Smyrna Beach High School in Volusia County;
and Anthony Wilks, a janitor with Seminole County Schools.
Investigators posed online as teens or parents and had communications with
the suspects. Several suspects sent photos of a sexual nature. Detectives say
all 50 men traveled to a home in Seminole
County thinking they were
going to have sex with teens between the ages of 11 and 15.
All suspects will be charged with traveling to meet a minor for sex and
soliciting a minor for sex.
The Seminole County Sheriff's Office used 200 investigators and worked with
more than a dozen law enforcement agencies, including the FBI and FDLE, to make
the arrests.
"Operation Cardea" was named after a Roman goddess who protected
homes.
