12 Men Arrested For Internet Crimes Against Children Committed In The Lowcountry

MOUNT PLEASANT, SC (WCSC) – Federal and local agencies have arrested more than ten men for Internet crimes against children in the Mount Pleasant area since August.

The various charges include traveling to the area to solicit sex from a minor, attempted sexual exploitation of a minor and sharing explicit content with minors.

A total of fifteen agencies worked the operation, and Mount Pleasant served as a home base for detectives and officers to obtain evidence and arrest and charge the suspects. Each charge can carry jail time and addition to a national sex offender database.

Those charged will be prosecuted by the South Carolina Attorney General’s Office and its specific Internet Crimes Against Children Division.

Kenneth Clark is a Mount Pleasant police officer who worked long hours to investigate the operation.

“For us it means a lot. Our goal is to save children and I think you can see from our hard work that we do save a lot of children. I know myself as a parent, my daughter is older now, but when I started like this when she was a young teenager, it means a lot to make sure other kids stay safe through the work we do,” Clark said. said.

Kevin Atkins, commander of the South Carolina Attorney General’s Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, says it was a great collaboration. He goes on to say that parents can also help by monitoring their children’s devices and teaching them safe online practices, such as not following, accepting friend requests or messages from strangers.

“It is labor intensive, it takes a lot of time to generate one case. You can spend 20 hours in one of these cases and not realize it. A lot of it depends on what the bad guy does. They can last for weeks. It’s whatever it takes. I mean a lot of this – we plan these years ahead … for a real chat type investigation, it could take 30 minutes, or it could take six months,” Atkins said.

The following four men face multiple charges after traveling to the Mount Pleasant area to commit the crimes:

The following four men have been identified as traveling to the Mt Pleasant area to commit crimes.(Live 5)

Carlos Nolasco faces charges of attempted criminal solicitation of a minor second degree and criminal solicitation of a minor.

Jason Thigpen faces charges of attempted criminal solicitation of a minor second degree, attempted criminal solicitation of a minor first degree and criminal solicitation of a minor.

Derrick Ewang faces charges of attempted criminal solicitation of a minor second degree and criminal solicitation of a minor.

Robert Jones faces charges of attempted criminal solicitation of a minor second degree, attempted criminal solicitation of a minor first degree and criminal solicitation of a minor.

The following men were arrested following the operation that identified the traveller:

Sean Garner faces charges of attempted sexual exploitation of a minor first degree, attempted distribution of obscene material to a person under the age of 18 and criminal solicitation of a minor.

David Morgan faces charges of attempted sexual exploitation of a minor first degree and criminal solicitation of a minor.

Ernest Cumbee faces two counts of attempted distribution of obscene material to a person under 18 years of age.

Peter McElhattan is facing a charge of criminal solicitation of a minor.

Robert Kirsch is facing two counts of attempted sexual exploitation of a minor first degree.

Jesse Haney faces charges of attempted sexual exploitation of a minor first degree, attempted distribution of obscene material to a person under the age of 18 and four counts of criminal solicitation of a minor.

James Hook faces charges of attempted sexual exploitation of a minor first degree (2), attempted distribution of obscene material to a person under the age of 18 and criminal solicitation of a minor (2).

Edward Bryan faces charges of criminal solicitation of a minor, attempted distribution of obscene material to a person under 18 years of age.

Officials say multiple agencies were involved, including the Beaufort Police Department, Charleston City Police Department, Charleston County Sheriff’s Office, Department of Homeland Security, the FBI, Georgetown County Sheriff’s Office, Goose Creek Police Department, Greenville County Sheriff’s Office, Marion County Sheriff’s Office, Mount Pleasant Police Department, South Carolina Attorney General’s Office, South Carolina Department of Corrections Office of Inspector General, US Marshalls, US Secret Service, and York County Sheriff’s Office.