Guadalupe County Sheriff launches online undercover operation against sex crimes

(Guadalupe County) — Guadalupe County Sheriff Joshua Ray says his office is working to take down sexual predators residing here in this community.

The Guadalupe County Sheriff’s Office recently conducted an online undercover operation apprehending 14 alleged sexual predators in the Seguin area. The suspects were identified and arrested for various offenses, including online solicitation of a minor, solicitation of prostitution, and several drug charges. In a video posted on social media, the sheriff’s office showed how officers surprised some of the suspects as they attempted to meet with what they thought was an underaged person. The sheriff’s office set up a staged environment outside an area hotel room.

Sheriff Ray says the posted video clip was all part of the sting operation. Ray says this is something that they plan to continue to use in Guadalupe County to make sure that people aren’t preying on children in this community.

“Our investigators are still learning the processes and how to tackle these types of investigations so we leaned on the Texas Department of Public Safety quite a bit because they already actively conduct these operations. They spearhead the TAG in San Antonio which is the Texas Anti-Gang initiative and investigators from all over San Antonio metro area are involved in that unit and do these types of operations on a regular basis. That, and our partnership with our local agencies is what kind of led to the collaborative effort but the idea was for us to be able to do more of this in our county,” said Ray.

Ray says the number of sexual predators and sex crimes, in general, continue to grow, which is one of the reasons for the sting operation. Ray says 14 suspects were drawn to that hotel room in a span of just three days.

“I’ve worked violent crime for a long time and some of the most difficult investigations that I was a part of — were crimes against children because you know they are the most vulnerable in our society. Then the sex crimes on top of that because a loved one is attacked in this very invasive way and so in today’s society with technology and the applications on our phones and social media, there is just all of these different avenues that it is getting harder and harder and harder for parents to protect their children from those that want to seek them out to do these kind of harms and I can relate to it. It has touched our family in specific ways, and I’ve had families throughout the campaign and even in office say that it is just getting harder, harder and harder,” said Ray.

Sheriff Ray says not only are they making these arrests, but they are also trying to be proactive in identifying these suspects before someone else becomes a victim.

“It was important to me that as the sheriff and the leader of our law enforcement agency that we be not only reactive – we would still react to those cases – but that we put some type of proactive mechanism in place to where we are going out and finding the people that are doing this and by attacking the problem in this way through internet crime against children, we are not only going to identify child predators. We are going to identify sexual predators of all sorts. We are still going to recover and rescue victims that we didn’t even know existed because the ones that come in are the victims that are brave enough to raise their hand and say I need help or I’ve been assaulted but there are so many out there that it goes unreported,” said Ray.

Ray says, unfortunately, there is no one type of suspect when trying to identify a sexual predator. He says that’s what makes these crimes even more dangerous.

“The suspects pretty much come in all shapes and sizes. I was asked that in another interview – what is a suspect. It can be somebody you see every day –any race, any ethnicity, any gender even though they seem to be predominately male. So, there is no specific attributes other than the fact that they are committing this type of offense,” said Ray.

Ray says the hope now is to not only continue the operation, but to also improve the mechanics that go into making those arrests.

“My criminal investigations captain said in our briefing, if we make one arrest or we take one child predator off the street then it is a successful operation. By that measure, it was successful because we made 14 arrests. But we also learned over this period of three days, there are things that we can do better. As a matter of fact, we have a meeting this week to discuss that – on how we can perfect it every time that we do it – little things like technical difficulties and then some of our magistrates and processes that goes on with the jail. We need to communicate more effectively with the jail when we are conducting these types of operations because there is an influx of people coming in so I think you will potentially see numbers increase from what they are in future operations,” said Ray.

During the operation, the Crisis Center for Comal County and Untethered Ministries also participated by providing victim assistance to two female human trafficking and prostitution victims. Sheriff Ray says he has plans to continue to aggressively target sexual predators — more specifically child sex predators. And as they continue this online operation, he says it not only brings awareness to the rest of the community, but it also sends a direct message to those contemplating the crime.

“It’s two-fold. Obviously as we are talking, it tells our community the types of things that are going on in our county, but it also sends a signal to criminals who want to exploit our children or pursue our children that you may be hunting children, but we are out there hunting you. If they want to come to Guadalupe County to try to do these types of things, it’s important that we have this stuff out there that shows that we are fighting this head on and my goal is to make it an atmosphere, make it well known that if you come to Guadalupe County to do it, you are playing with fire,” said Ray.

Those collaborating with the Guadalupe County Sheriff’s office during the sting operation include the Guadalupe County Attorney’s Office, the Texas Department of Public Safety, Schertz PD, New Braunfels PD, Live Oak PD, Converse PD, San Antonio PD, the US Army Criminal Investigations Division and the US Air Force Office of Special Investigations.