Dozens of people were arrested and 13 children were rescued in a GBI sting. A Winder man, 57-year old John Clark Miller, is among the 76 people in “Operation Southern Impact II.”
According to a release from the GBI, the operation was coordinated effort between eight southeastern states, involving nine Internet Crimes Against Children Task Forces. The effort focuses on people accused of possessing and distributing child pornography, as well as those accused of sexually exploiting children in other ways using technology and the internet.
The 4-month long operation culminated in two days of actions including executing search warrants, undercover operations, and arrests in Georgia, Florida, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia.
Those arrested range in age from 17 to 72, their occupations include postal worker, nonprofit employee, daycare administrator and pastor.
In Georgia, 34 people were arrested during Operation Southern Impact II. Many of those arrests involved the possession and/or distribution of child pornography. While investigators regularly target the trading of all types of child pornography, in Operation Southern Impact II investigators targeted those seeking out and distributing the most violent child pornography involving infants and toddlers.
Six (6) of those arrested in Georgia traveled for the purpose of meeting and having sex with a minor. There was one arrest involving sextortion, an alarming trend involving subjects that obtain sexually explicit photos of minors and then threaten or blackmail the victim for additional obscene images or videos. Investigators found instances in which arrested subjects, some of whom had no prior criminal history, were working in positions of trust or jobs where interaction with children is common.
Eight (8) registered sex offenders were encountered in Georgia, during the course of this operation, four (4) of those offenders were charged with new crimes related to child pornography while the others were charged with various compliance violations. There was an additional subject who had an arrest for a prior sex offense but was not a registered sex offender. At least one foster parent with young children was arrested. There were also searches conducted where guns were found and illegal drugs were discovered.
In Georgia, a total of 38 search warrants were executed and 12 knock and talks were conducted during Operation Southern Impact II. Law enforcement officers conducting the searches were looking for evidence of possession and distribution of child pornography using the internet as well as evidence of other child exploitation related crimes. Over the course of the operation, 196 digital devices were examined and 474 digital media and devices were seized as evidence.
