Sex-offender sting nets a carload of men

Utah's Internet task force brought in a carload of suspected child sex offenders Wednesday night — literally.

A sting operation netted the arrests of five men, four of them arriving in the same vehicle to the rendezvous spot, according to a news release from the Utah Attorney General's Office.

"It's the first time we've had a car load of guys show up to have sex with an underage girl," says Ken Hansen, director of the Utah Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force (ICAC) in the release. "The most disturbing aspect of all this is that they may have abused two young girls six weeks earlier."

The five arrests break the national record for single-night arrests by an Internet Task Force. The old record of four was also set by the Utah squad, which has made more than 250 arrests since it was formed three years ago.

All of the men arrested Wednesday were using Internet chat rooms trying to arrange sexual encounters with children, the release states. Instead, they exchanged messages with undercover officers and were arrested after arriving at a designated location.

The Attorney General's Office will review the five cases for possible charges, the release states.

The ICAC Task Force is a multi-jurisdictional task force that includes agents from the Attorney General's Office, FBI, Salt Lake City Police Department, West Valley City Police Department, Utah Department of Corrections, Utah Department of Public Safety, Utah Division of Adult Probation and Parole Office and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.