WASHINGTON, DC- Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel announced Wednesday that over 200 child sex predators had been arrested under a joint operation, The New York Post reported.
“Operation Restore Justice” saw 115 children rescued nationwide and resulted in 205 arrests in what Bondi and Patel called a “historic” and “unprecedented” joint operation between the FBI and the Department of Justice.
Suspects charged included an illegal alien from Mexico, a Minnesota state trooper, and a retired DC Metro police officer, Patel said.
In a press release issued by the U.S. Attorney’s Office, District of Massachusetts, the DOJ announced that the “coordinated enforcement effort to identify, track, and arrest child sex predators” was carried out by all 55 FBI field offices, the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section in the Department’s Criminal Division, and United States Attorney’s Offices nationwide.
Covering a period between April 28 and May 2, over 200 child sexual abuse offenders were arrested, including “school leaders, registered sex offenders, and members of law enforcement,” all of whom “are accused of various crimes including the production, distributiona and possession of chld sexual abuse material (CSAM); online enticement, and transportation of minors; and sex trafficking.”
Those arrested included Minnesota state trooper Jeremy Francis Plonski, who was arrested for producing child sexual abuse material while in uniform, Patel said. He faces a mandatory minimum of 15 years in federal prison.
Former DC Metro cop Linwood Barnhill, a convicted sex offender, is accused of exploiting additional victims while on supervised release, Patel added.
He allegedly recruited children to engage in commercial sex acts, which he profited from financially, the complaint reads.
“These depraved human beings, if convicted, will face the maximum penalty in prison, some life,” AG Bondi said at a press briefing.
The joint operation marks a sharp contrast from the Biden-era DOJ, which focused on targeting grandparents who trespassed at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, pro-life advocates who prayed at abortion mills, and school parents who disagreed with their children being indoctrinated in public schools.
Bondi said in speaking to the joint operation, “We will find you. We will arrest you, and we will charge you. If you are online targeting a child, you will not escape us. The FBI and the Department of Justice will come after you. And we will prosecute you.”
Patel said all 55 FBI field offices were involved in the operation, noting that “their work undoubtedly saved lives and protected vulnerable kids from further horrific crimes,” in a post on X.
“Operation Restore Justice is a powerful message: If you harm children in America, you will be given no sanctuary. There is nowhere you can hide.”
In the press release, Bondi said the DOJ is focused on protecting victims, especially children, from those who prey upon the most vulnerable.
“The Department of Justice will never stop fighting to protect victims–especially child victims–and we will not rest until we hunt down, arrest, and prosecute every child predator who preys on the most vulnerable among us,” Bondi said. “I am grateful to the FBI and their state and local partners for their incredible work in Operation Restore Justice, and have directed my prosecutors not to negotiate.
“Every child deserves to grow up free from fear and exploitation, and the FBI will continue to be relentless in our pursuit of those who exploit the most vulnerable among us,” said FBI Director Kash Patel. “Operation Restore Justice proves that no predator is out of reach and no child will be forgotten. By leveraging the strength of all our field offices and our federal, state, and local partners, we’re sending a clear message: there is no place to hide for those who prey on children.”
U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts, Leah B. Foley, called protecting children a “sacred responsibility.”
“Protecting children from exploitation is among the most sacred responsibilities we have in law enforcement. Each case serves as a difficult reminder that child predators are embedded in our communities. Some take on roles that increase their direct contact with children, while others prey on children from behind a keyboard. But make no mistake, we will identify, arrest, and hold every one of them accountable, no matter how long it takes or how far we have to go,’ Foley said.
“As Child Abuse Prevention Month came to a close, Operation Restore Justice delivered a powerful and urgent message: protecting children is not just a worthy cause we recognize, it is a mission we carry out every day. We will not relent in our pursuit of those who exploit children, and we are grateful to our law enforcement partners for their tireless work to bring these predators to justice. This work will not stop.”
James Crowley, Acting Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Boston Division, noted that “child sex predators come in many different forms,” and that “as horrific as these alleged crimes are, they are not rare.”
“Make no mistake, FBI Boston’s Child Exploitation-Human Trafficking Task Force is committed to finding these child sex abusers, locking them up, and ensuring those they have victimized are safe and well-supported.
Among those arrested in the District of Massachusetts were:
- Former Assistant Director of Admissions at Emmanuel College, Jacob Henriques, 29, of Boston, who was charged with soliciting an underage college applicant to engage in commercial sex with him;
- Justin Ouimette, 34, of Holyoke, a Level 1 sex offender, was charged with possession of CSAM, including abuse of victims as young as three years old. He was convicted in 2022 by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts for possessing CSAM;
- Warren Messeck, 75, of Agawam, was charged with possessing CSAM. He was identified as a user of an internet-based, peer-to-peer network downloading CSAM. Over 40 devices containing over 10,000 CSAM files were seized from his residence.
- Brandon Bendall, 49, of Wareham, was charged with possessing and receiving CSAM. Court documents allege that Bendall was a member of an online chat group where members viewed and posted CSAM. During the execution of a search warrant at his residence and on his cell phone, approximately 9.400 images and videos of CSAM, including images of children as young as infants being sexually abused, were located;
- Cess Frazier, 32, of Boston, is charged with receiving CSAM. Authorities say that approximately 100 media files depicting CSAM were found saved on Frazier’s phone.
The operation was undertaken as the DOJ observed National Child Abuse Prevention Month, and underscores the Department’s unwavering commitment to protecting children and raising awareness about the dangers of online predators.”
At the press briefing, AG Bondi reminded parents to pay attention to what their children are accessing on the Internet.
“Parents, you have to know this is so serious, your child has no right to privacy on the internet, none,” she said. “You have to monitor what your kids are doing, whether they’re playing games on the internet, on social media, any other websites that children and teenagers frequent, an online predator can find them.
“I always say it’s from instant message to instant nightmare. They’re predators. They pose as children. They get them sometimes to post explicit pictures of themselves after they talk to them, and then, in some cases, they even try to blackmail the children.”
