Arkansas authorities arrested nine men in Faulkner County on Sept. 13-14 on charges related to human trafficking and child exploitation.

The Faulkner County Sheriff’s Office, the 20th Judicial District Prosecuting Attorney’s Office and the United States Marshal Service partnered with Covenant Rescue Group to execute Operation Room Service, which led to the arrests.

Faulkner County Sheriff Tim Ryals said, “It’s an operation where we have people who know how to circumvent and get around and get on to what you would call the dark web back channels, where a lot of the prostitution rings and human trafficking take place through social media, and we have those conversations on the social media sites.”

He said, “This isn’t pertaining to this particular operation a week ago. We’ve had people come from New York. We’ve had them come from Indiana, Oklahoma, all the way down here to attempt to, or at least in their minds, have sexual relationships with minors.”

He said law enforcement typically rents a motel or anywhere “that we’ve got legal access to and authority to.”

“Then we give them a location of where to show up, and they’ll show up and knock on the doors or meet us in a certain location with the intention of having sexual relations with a minor,” he said.

Rylas said, “Once we arrest them, we take their phones and get all the evidence on them, and we’re able to use that evidence that the conversation was happening with this adult investigator who they thought was a child, and so it’s been very successful.”

Josh Moody is the chief operating officer of Covenant Rescue Group, a nonprofit based out of Birmingham, Alabama, comprised of former military special operators and law enforcement, whose goal is to combat human trafficking.

CRG operates globally, but this was its first operation in Arkansas.

Moody said, “Our primary role and function is to train, equip and advise law enforcement agencies in conducting anti-human trafficking, child exploitation things.

“Typically, what that looks like is we’ll conduct a two or three-day training, sometimes a five-day training, depending on what the agency wants — basically just kind of walk them start to finish on how to conduct these types of operations. Then, typically, the last couple of nights will be live operations that the local agency hosts,” he said.

“They make the arrest, they conduct the operation. We just act typically as advisors on those types of operations, which is what happened with Faulkner County,” Moody said. “It was Faulkner County’s operation completely. They made the arrest. They did a fantastic job. We just simply acted as advisors and trainers on the operation.” 

He said what CRG does is similar to “To Catch a Predator” with Chris Hansen.

Moody said, “What we want to key in on is making sure we do our due diligence, and the department does their due diligence to make sure it is a prosecutable arrest, because if these perpetrators are arrested and something was not done correctly or legally, then they’re going to get off.”

He said CRG teaches law enforcement “what they can do, what they can’t do, what they can say on chat, what they can’t say on the chat and how to conduct themselves online.

“So that when a district attorney or a prosecutor looks at this case, they go, ‘That’s a slam dunk,’” he said.

“We’re not one of these vigilante groups that you see on social media, where they get these guys to meet them at Walmart, then they either embarrass or beat them up,” he said. “That doesn’t do anything productive. That doesn’t do anything to help the situation. If we’re not making cases, if we’re not teaching these agencies how to make prosecutable arrests, then we’re not really accomplishing anything.”

Moody said, “The biggest thing to be aware of is the social media presence.”

“The days of the free candy van are over,” he said. “Guys aren’t rolling up and snatching people out of the front yard. ‘Hey, free ice cream over here,’ and then they snatch them when they get close. Those types of cases happen occasionally, but what we’re seeing now is these predators are stalking social media. They’re stalking TikTok. They’re stalking Snapchat. They’re going on Facebook, Instagram, all of these, and that’s how they get their foot in the door.”

He said, “Be careful of what you’re doing online because that’s the most common way that we’ve seen individuals being abducted and trafficked.”

Moody said women are targeted the most. 

“Social media can be a fantastic thing, but it can also be a horrible thing. Especially for college-aged females, just be super, super careful about what you’re posting, what you’re putting out there — locations. ‘I’m doing this, I’m going here, I’m partying here.’ Be careful and cognizant about those and really just be aware of your surroundings.”

Operation Room Service led to the arrest of nine men.

• Jacob Teel, 37, was arrested for internet stalking of a child and traveling for the purpose of an unlawful sex act with a minor, both Class B felonies.

• Joey Le, 34, a registered level 3 sex offender, faces two counts each of internet stalking of a child, which is a Class Y felony, traveling for the purpose of an unlawful sex act with a minor, a Class B felony, and sexual indecency with a child, a Class D felony.

• Joseph Capps, 53, was arrested for internet stalking of a child, which is a Class Y felony, traveling for the purpose of an unlawful sex act with a minor, a Class B felony, and sexual indecency with a child, a Class D felony.

• Caleb Higdon, 28, was arrested for internet stalking of a child, which is a Class Y felony, traveling for the purpose of an unlawful sex act with a minor, a Class B felony, and sexual indecency with a child, a Class D felony.

• Easton Squirres, 22, was arrested for internet stalking of a child, which is a Class Y felony, traveling for the purpose of an unlawful sex act with a minor, a Class B felony, and sexual indecency with a child, a Class D felony.

• Damarv Cummings, 45, was arrested for internet stalking of a child, which is a Class Y felony, traveling for the purpose of an unlawful sex act with a minor, a Class B felony, and sexual indecency with a child, a Class D felony.

• Jeremy Curtiss, 24, is charged with internet stalking of a child, which is a Class Y felony, traveling for the purpose of an unlawful sex act with a minor, a Class B felony, and sexual indecency with a child, a Class D felony.

• Alton Sprague, 71, was arrested for internet stalking of a child, which is a Class Y felony, traveling for the purpose of an unlawful sex act with a minor, a Class B felony, and sexual indecency with a child, a Class D felony.

• Phillip Engle, 52, was arrested for internet stalking of a child, which is a Class Y felony, traveling for the purpose of an unlawful sex act with a minor, a Class B felony, and sexual indecency with a child, a Class D felony.