A five-week operation by federal authorities has nabbed 255 suspected child predators, with 58 of those arrests coming from Florida.
Authorities have confirmed that of those 58 men arrested in the sting, five of them are from South Florida, including the Weston and Dania Beach areas.
The sting, called Operation iGuardian, has identified 61 victims throughout the investigation, according to the report.
The iGuardian sweep nabbed men throughout the United States, Puerto Rico, and Mexico, focusing on child sex predators who would meet kids online and convince them to send obscene images of themselves.
In South Florida, authorities arrested Theodore Nusbaum, 64, a Hebrew school teacher living in North Bay Village. Nusbaum is accused of having child pornography on his desktop computer. They also arrested Thomas Edler, 48, of Weston, who allegedly took pictures of a nude boy.
The arrests also included Andres Moreno, 37, of Dania Beach, who is facing 42 child-pornography-related charges.
Other men throughout Florida were also arrested through the iGuardian sting, including suspects from Sanford, Daytona Beach, and Melbourne.
Operation iGuardian, which was carried out by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Homeland Security Investigations and the multiagency Internet Crimes Against Children task forces, began on May 28 and lasted through June 30, netting 255 total arrests.
"Child abusers prowl social media looking for opportunities to force young people into sexual exploitation through guile, deceit, and extortion," the ICE said in a news release.
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