The men arrested ranged in age from 19 to 41, and 53 percent of them were Gwinnett County residents.

“Some think that this is just an inner city problem or a lower socioeconomic class problem, but this was in the middle of Gwinnett County, in the suburbs,” Cason said. “There is no single one predator. They cross all boundaries.”

Child sex abuse prevention advocates said this operation should be a stark reminder that the issue can hit anywhere in metro Atlanta.

“Operation Spring Cleaning is proof to anyone who had disbelief that there was demand for sex with children in our state,” said Heather Stockdale, executive director of Georgia Cares. “These suspects were willing to travel and pay for sex with children.

The sting not only yielded the largest number of arrests of any ICAC sting, but involved 20 law enforcement agencies and more than 70 officers. Garner credited the number of officers and agencies that participated, as well as lessons learned from conducting previous stings, for the high arrest number.

All suspects who planned on traveling in the case were surveilled by law enforcement, and all who traveled were arrested, Garner said.

None of the suspects have previous arrests for child sexual abuse, but are charged with offenses including child molestation, sexual exploitation of a minor and human trafficking. Some of those charges carry a maximum of life in prison.

Unterman, a vocal advocate for human trafficking and child sex abuse prevention, praised the operation as a sign Georgia continues to make progress on those issues.

“We are taking predators off the street,” she said.

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