A 56-year-old American man is being held in a Thunder Bay jail after police in Georgia say he tried to solicit sex with a child online.

Patrick Molesti of Woodstock, Georgia, will face a detention review hearing in Toronto on Wednesday morning via video link.

Molesti is wanted by the Cherokee County Sheriff’s office on child pornography charges. Police there also allege that he tried to solicit sex with a five-year-old child over the Internet.

He was arrested at the Greyhound Bus depot in Thunder Bay on Friday.

Molesti moved to the U.S. from France, and had been on the run from American authorities for almost two weeks when he was captured.

The Canada Border Services Agency said it got a tip from the U.S. Marshal’s office that Molesti was in Canada. Border services agents then tracked him to a bus en route from Calgary to Montreal. He was arrested when the bus arrived in Thunder Bay, said CBSA spokesman Chris Kealey.

How Molesti got into Canada and what he was doing here is still being investigated, Kealey told the Star. Calgary Police suspect he may have entered Canada through Montana.

Calgary Police confirmed Molesti was in the city. Officers worked together with the RCMP, CBSA, the Toronto Police and the Thunder Bay police to co-ordinate the arrest, said Staff Sgt. Todd Zelensky, with the Calgary Police.

The investigation began when police in Cherokee County got an anonymous tip about a man trying to purchase a five-year-old for sexual gratification over the Internet. Police began investigating the claim, conducted a search warrant and seized Molesti’s computer, Capt. Joe Perkins of Cherokee County Sheriff’s office told the Star.

After obtaining another search warrant to view the data on the computer’s hard drive, Perkins said police found images of child pornography and evidence of solicitation for a child.

There was no evidence of a rendezvous or that a predator was going to Canada to meet or retrieve a child in Canada, Perkins said. “It was more that he was putting out feelers,” he said.

Perkins said Molesti was in the United States legally, but fled Cherokee County when police advised him they had a warrant for his arrest.

The next step will be to get him sent back to the U.S. to face charges there, said Perkins.

“We’re waiting for him to get back to Georgia so we can start our legal proceedings.”

With files from Canadian Press