Sheriff, AG Uthmeier, Lt. Gov. Collins announce 20 “Operation Cooked” arrests
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier and Lt. Gov. Jay Collins (far right) joined Osceola Sheriff Chris Blackmon (at podium), St. Cloud Police Chief Doug Gierke, representing one of the eight agencies that participated, and members of the Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) division Thursday to announce the 20 arrests. (Photo/Ken Jackson)
The Osceola County Sheriff’s Office announced the arrests of 20 men Thursday as part of “Operation Cooked,” an Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) investigation targeting predators accused of using the internet to solicit minors for sex.
Sheriff Christopher Blackmon announced the arrests during a press conference alongside Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier and Lt. Gov. Jay Collins. The sting was conducted by OCSO’s ICAC task force, which investigates online child exploitation, child sexual abuse material and adults accused of using the internet to target minors, along with a number of other police agencies like the St. Cloud Police Department.
The operation involved men that attempted to meet up with a minor for sex, after chatting online with a detective. In most cases, the detectives posed as a decoy 13 or 14-year-old girl, although some were posing as 7 or 14-year-old boys.
They’ve all been arrested and formally charged with attempting to solicit minors for sexual activity.
There was a level of disgust in their voices when describing some of the arrests that occurred Sept. 2-5.
“We had five men who had children themselves,” Blackmon recounted. “Three were here on vacation. Four were illegal aliens (from Ecuador, Honduras, Mexico and Venezuela), one had a standing extradition order. And one rode his bicycle for 30 minutes from downtown Orlando to come here with the expectation of having sex with a child.
“Let this operation serve as an unmistakable warning. If you enter our community or step across our digital borders with the expectation to harm our children, you will be caught, you will be handcuffed, you will be processed through the county jail, and you'll have the full weight of the criminal justice system on your back. Protecting the most vulnerable among us is not just a statutory duty, that's our highest priority as men or member of our communities. While most of our citizens were home sleeping at night, our deputy sheriffs and the other agencies were working in the rain hunting down these predators.”
Blackmon and Uthmeier both implored parents to be present in their children’s online activity, and also said they were working with social media network and application developers to flag suspicious accounts and activity.
“We're gonna make sure that we get these people off the streets for as long as possible,” Uthmeier said. “In just over a year, we've now taken down well over 2,000 child predators. We're bringing the death penalty, where it's appropriate under the law.”
The Sheriff said this process is ongoing and hasn’t ended with the 20 arrests. Spokesperson Capt. Kim Montes said detectives “chatted” with more suspects who hadn’t made plans to meet.
“They're still in the works of the arrest,” she said.
The announcement of the arrests one day after U.S. Rep. Darren Soto announced a $1 million federal grant to help the sheriff’s office expand technology, equipment and victim identification efforts used in online child exploitation investigations. The grant was awarded through the U.S. Department of Justice’s Byrne Discretionary Community Project Grants Program after a fiscal year 2026 Community Project Funding request from Soto.
Sgt. Kyle Glynn, who supervises the ICAC unit, said the grant comes as the agency is dealing with an increasing volume of cyber tips and fast-changing technology used by offenders.
“It's phenomenal for us,” said Glynn “It’s definitely much needed.”
The Sheriff’s Office serves as the Central Florida regional lead for the ICAC task force. Glynn said the unit recently doubled its staffing to 10 people after receiving recurring state funding last year, which left the team needing more space and technology to keep up with its work.
The new federal grant will help equip a new office now under construction, support future growth, upgrade aging equipment and help pay for new investigative technology, Glynn said.
“Obviously, the internet is insane — the amount of technology and the growth of the internet and the accessibility to the public of the internet,” Glynn said. “We’re just thinking about the future.”
One major focus of the grant will be victim identification technology. Glynn said the Sheriff’s Office is preparing to take part in a statewide initiative involving the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and Florida’s three ICAC task forces. The goal is to create a secure system that can help identify child victims in locally-produced child sexual abuse material, store that information and assist with services and restitution when images or videos are later recirculated online.
The grant also will allow the task force to upgrade aging equipment. Glynn said technology used in child exploitation investigations often has a short shelf life because software, storage needs and forensic tools change rapidly.
“Equipment for our line of work really has a three- to five-year shelf life because it’s technology,” he said. “There’s advancements.”
Investigators also are testing software that could reduce the time it takes to review massive amounts of digital evidence. Glynn said when detectives serve a search warrant on an online account, the resulting records can include thousands of pages of messages, files and other data. Investigators often must manually review that information to look for evidence of crimes, solicitation or attempts to meet minors. New technology could allow the task force to upload that data into software that more rapidly generates a report, Glynn said.
“That’s done within a couple minutes compared to maybe a month of an investigator going through,” he said. “We’re at the point now where there’s just so much volume, we have to use state-of-the-art technology.”
The grant also is expected to help pay for a mobile digital forensics van that would allow investigators to examine devices at the scene of certain cases. Glynn said the van would allow detectives to conduct live triage of phones, computers or other electronics when investigators believe a child may be at immediate risk. In some cases, that could allow detectives to review key evidence quickly instead of waiting weeks.
“That’s going to be a great help to us,” he said.
The need for upgraded technology comes as cyber tips continue to pour into the task force. Glynn said the region has received more than 20,000 cyber tips so far this year. Last year, he said, the total was more than 27,000.
“There’s definitely never a shortage of cyber tips,” he said.
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has improved its own technology, Glynn said, allowing the agency to link tips involving the same offender across multiple applications. That can help reduce duplicative work and route cases more efficiently to the correct jurisdiction.
“Technology has been good and bad,” Glynn said. “Bad guys are going to use technology to do bad things, but for us, technology has helped us on some of the workload.”
Soto has also requested an additional $998,200 in fiscal year 2027 funding for the task force. Glynn said any additional funding would help the task force stay current as technology changes and as the victim identification initiative expands. The Sheriff’s Office is responsible for helping train and equip 67 affiliate agencies, including about 375 investigators and prosecutors, he said.
Glynn said online threats to children continue to evolve, making parental supervision critical. He urged parents to monitor their children’s devices, know who they are communicating with and be aware of apps that can hide photos, messages or other applications behind something that appears ordinary, such as a calculator.
He also encouraged parents to use monitoring tools if needed, but said technology is not a substitute for direct supervision.
“I still would always encourage parents to physically go through those phones,” Glynn said.
He said parents should make sure their children know the difference between real-life friends and people they only encounter online.
“If there’s somebody that’s unrecognized, then they’re not your friend,” he said. “And by recognizing, meaning you know them face to face. You go to school with them. Not some guy that you met online or some unknown person.”
Editor Ken Jackson contributed to this report.
