15 men arrested in operation 'Creeper Ban', Fresno County deputies say

FRESNO COUNTY, Calif. (KSEE/KGPE) - 15 men were arrested during "Operation Creeper Ban" and were accused of having, sharing oregon creating kid intersexual maltreatment worldly (CSAM), according to the Fresno County Sheriff's Office connected Monday.

The multi-agency "Operation Creeper Ban" was conducted from June 9 until June 13, which, according to the sheriff's office, led to the apprehension of 15 men; immoderate of them person since posted bond, been assigned to a tribunal day and released from custody. The suspects were identified as:

• Kristopher Zepeda, 37, of Fresno – Accused of possession of CSAM (Current registered enactment offender)
• Ralph Contreras Jr., 39, of Chowchilla - In transportation with a warrant for possession of CSAM
• Clifton Ewing, 34, of Fresno – Accused of arranging to conscionable with a insignificant for enactment (bonded out)
• Dominic Simonian, 25, of Fresno - Accused of possession of CSAM (bonded out)
• George Gutierrez, 42, of Fresno – Accused of distributing obscene worldly to a insignificant (bonded out)
• Branden Padgett, 36, of Fresno - Accused of possession of CSAM (bonded out)
• Ramon Rodriguez, 32, of Orange Cove - Accused of possession of CSAM (bonded out)
• Julian Dedrick, 32, of Clovis - Accused of possession of CSAM
• Joshua Schiro, 27, of Clovis - Accused of possession of CSAM (bonded out)
• John Jeffery, 19, of Clovis - Accused of possession of CSAM
• Gilbert Hinojosa, 36, of Clovis - Accused of possession of CSAM (bonded out)
• Ruben Lopez, 38, of Madera - Accused of creating CSAM (bonded out)
• Hugo Lopez Garzon, 31, of Madera - Accused of distributing obscene worldly to a insignificant (bonded out)
• Giovanni Acevedo, 21, of Madera - Accused of possession of CSAM
• Rudy Rosales Moreno, 20, of Sanger - Accused of possession of CSAM (bonded out)

The sheriff's bureau explains the cognition comes from the ground that children's usage of physics devices and societal media is higher than ever, and 1 of the dangers they look is encountering a intersexual predator looking for relationships with children.

To combat the problem, detectives accidental they served 11 hunt warrants astatine homes wherever they had accusation connected suspects who possessed oregon shared CSAM, resulting successful the apprehension of 13 radical from Madera and Fresno County. It besides resulted successful the seizure of 61 physics devices.

Detectives besides conducted 10 compliance checks connected registered enactment offenders.

During the investigation, detectives posed arsenic teenagers. The sheriff's bureau said the suspects utilized sexually explicit connection and sent graphic photos to the detective pretending to beryllium a child; the suspects were the archetypal to explicit intersexual tendency and were the ones who initiated a clip to conscionable with the detective posing arsenic a child.

Two suspects were arrested erstwhile they arrived astatine the location. No children were utilized during this operation. Those who person further accusation related to the suspects oregon different amerciable behaviors are encouraged to study it to the sheriff's bureau astatine 559-600-3111.