Plant City Police Department detectives arrested 14 suspects Jan. 25 to 27, during an undercover sex sting.
Detectives posed as 14- and 15-year-old girls and boys online during Operation Last Minute, a three-day undercover operation. Undercover detectives posted fictitious ads or profiles on various websites posing as children, or parents of children. Numerous men responded to the ads interacting with undercover detectives, who posed as children online through texts, emails and phone conversations.
Throughout the sting, 14 individuals traveled to a house in Plant City to meet who they thought were 14- and 15-year-old children. Instead, detectives were waiting for the suspects.
One suspect lives in Massachusetts. He was in Florida for business and contacted one of the undercover detectives.
“He was looking for some excitement, and we gave it to him,” said department spokesman Sgt. Tray Towles.
This is the second and most successful internet crimes operation conducted by the department in recent years. The sting was a joint operation conducted under the umbrella of the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force and included detectives and agents from the Plant City Police Department, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the Polk County Sheriff’s Office, working in conjunction with prosecutors from the Hillsborough County State Attorney’s Office.
The suspects solicited for sex acts, sent pornographic pictures of themselves and asked for nude photos of the children to be sent to them.
Those arrested include:
Nathan Donald Warren, 23, of New Port Richey
Pedro Manuel Leon, 18, of Plant City
Vincent Lamar Lewis Jr., 19, of Wesley Chapel
Spyros Kouvaras, 18, of Spring Hill
Donald Joseph Langford, 56, of Alturas
Chuck Elof Lindeen, 53, of St. Petersburg
David James Letchworth, 22, of Tampa
Peter Joseph Ciaverelli, 30, of Tampa
Toby Paul Hebert, 41, of Holiday
James Douglas McGinnis, 46, of Dover
Joseph Frank Malventano, 23, of Odessa
Brian Daniel Dahlberg, 26, of Tampa
Shannon Paul Beasley, 35, of Valrico