Eighteen Men in Tennessee Arrested in Connection to Child Sex Trafficking Scheme

Eighteen people in Tennessee have been arrested in connection to a child sex trafficking scheme in the state.

Baller Alert previously reported on a major human trafficking bust in Kansas City, in which 82 people were arrested and 31 people were rescued. Now, special agents in Tennessee have been caught following a two-day undercover operation into alleged human trafficking in the state.

The operation – launched on July 8 – comes as a collaborative effort between the FBI, Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, Homeland Security, and the 22nd District Attorney. Authorities set up several fake ads on websites well-known for being tied to prostitution and commercial sex cases. This helped officials find out who may be victims and learn who participated in the trafficking itself.

After the probe was complete, police arrested 18 men and charged them with crimes, including solicitation of minors or patronizing prostitution from a minor. All of the alleged criminals are between 24 to 53 years old; the majority were from Tennessee. However, there were two men from Louisiana, one from Alabama and another from Florida.

More charges for the men could be pending. For now, they have been booked into the Maury County Jail, Fox 5 Atlanta reports.

Those arrested include Georgie George, Marvin Sparkman, Steven McCanless, Ketankumar Patel, Ivan Ashley, David Christopher May, Andrew Myung Kim, Bryce Lawson, Jeremiah McSpaddin, Brian Mitchell, Nabi Rahman, Patrick Harris, Matthew Brewer, Suleiman Musa Osman, Juan Gabriel Hernandez Eufracio, Pablo Godines Cervantes, Haojie Wang, and Luis Diaz-Mendez.