(The Center Square) − Dozens of registered sex offenders in north Louisiana have been arrested and accused of committing additional crimes against children, Attorney General Liz Murrill said Thursday.
The 67 arrests are the result of her office’s “Operation Access Denied” initiative that ran from Nov. 1 to Dec. 1. It included more than 30 law enforcement agencies who used the state’s sex offender registry and other law enforcement databases to identify suspected violations. They found registered offenders who were unlawfully active online, Murrill said, and after obtaining arrest warrants discovered evidence of additional crimes.
Some suspects were booked on charges ranging from unlawful use of social media to first-degree rape, computer-aided solicitation of a juvenile, indecent behavior with a juvenile, possession of child sexual abuse material and sexual abuse of an animal, according to the attorney general’s office and local reporting. Murrill said the sweep is ongoing and could expand.
Louisiana law does not bar every registered sex offender from the internet. But it’s a felony for some, based on the nature of their prior offenses, to use a “social networking website,” with penalties of up to 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine on a first conviction, and up to 20 years and $20,000 for subsequent convictions.
The arrests come as Louisiana’s Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force reports a sharp rise in tips related to online exploitation. The task force told The Center Square in early December it had received more than 20,000 CyberTipline reports this year, surpassing the prior year’s total and pushing investigations from proactive work to largely reactive case triage.
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has warned Congress that online child sexual exploitation is increasingly reported on mainstream platforms and services, and that emerging patterns such as “sextortion” are driving part of the rise.
