by Mary Margaret Olohan
Authorities conducted a large scale sting operation, busting a massive Ohio sex trafficking ring involving both a doctor and a church leader.
The sex trafficking sting captured more than 100 people, according to Fox News.
Authorities conducted the operation, led by Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, in three central Ohio counties: Franklin, Fairfield and Delaware, WBNS reported.
Maj. Steven Tucker of the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office said that the arrests included 24 men who had shown up to an unnamed spot intending to solicit sex from a child. Tucker oversaw the operation, according to WBNS.
A police officer posed as a child online, Tucker said, and engaged in online chats with men looking for sex with children.
“The reality that they were operating in, is that there absolutely was a child at the other end of that device, and that’s who they were coming to see,” Tucker said, WBNS reports.
“They show up with sex toys, they show up with lubrication,” Tucker added. “They show up with things that clearly somebody isn’t going to show up to a house with, unless they intended to engage in sexual activity.”
Suspects included 26-year-old Christian Gibson, a former youth director, and 31-year-old Austin Kosier, an emergency room doctor, Fox reported.
The operation involved more than 30 law enforcement agencies, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost said, according to Fox.
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Mary Margaret Olohan is a reporter for the Daily Caller News Foundation.
