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- The Sutter County Sheriff’s Office conducted “Operation Cyber Shield” last month.
- The undercover law enforcement officials posed as 13-year-old children or younger online.
- There were 17 men arrested after being lured to a hotel believing they’d meet a child.
The Sutter County Sheriff’s Office conducted a three-day undercover operation last month targeting people allegedly seeking to sexually exploit children online, arresting 17 men, including five from Sacramento County.
Read more 17 arrests in Sutter County undercover enforcement of online child exploitation
Sheriff’s officials announced the results of Operation Cyber Shield during a news conference Friday. The operation was conducted July 22-24.
“My hope is that Operation Cyber Shield has a profound impact, and hopefully has saved a child from being victimized,” Sheriff Brandon Barnes said Friday.
During the operation, law enforcement personnel posed as minors 13 years or younger while communicating with individuals through various online platforms. Suspects were lured to a local hotel under the belief they were meeting an underage child and taken into custody upon their arrival.
The three-day operation initially produced 12 arrests. Some occurred inside the hotel, whose owners knew about the operation, and some occurred immediately outside. Other suspects continued to communicate with the law enforcement personnel posing as minors in the weeks that followed, leading to five additional arrests.
The suspects, all men, range in age from 18 to 68 years old. Five were from Sacramento County. Four live in Sacramento, three live in Marysville and two live in Yuba City. The others hail from Rancho Cordova, Granite Bay, Gridley, Lodi, Lincoln, Turlock, Oroville and Santa Rosa.
Their alleged crimes include contacting or communicating with a minor with the intent to commit a specified sexual offense, arranging a meeting with a minor for the purpose of committing a lewd or lascivious act and sending harmful matter to seduce a minor. All cases have been sent to the District Attorney’s office for prosecution.
The Sheriff’s Office carried out Operation Cyber Shield after seeing the success of these kinds of operations in other jurisdictions.
The law enforcement personnel posing as minors, or “chatters,” were highly skilled individuals specifically trained for this type of work, Barnes said. Over the three-day operation, he said, they endured “vulgar” conversations and, in some instances, received explicit pictures.
“These types of investigations can be complex, which is why we ensure subject-matter experts are involved in facilitating these arrests,” he said. “This is difficult work, and I want to acknowledge the sacrifices that they make to help protect our children from online predators.”
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Barnes did not disclose the online platforms used for the operation, saying that withholding the information is necessary to protect undercover operations like Operation Cyber Shield in other jurisdictions.
Roughly 50 to 60 law enforcement personnel were involved during each of the three days. The operation took months to plan, according to Jeffrey Greeson, chief deputy district attorney of Sutter County.
The Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office, Sacramento Police Department and Sacramento Valley Hi-Tech Crimes Task Force were among the almost 20 participating agencies. Other participating agencies included the California Highway Patrol, California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Placer County Sheriff’s Office, Turlock Police Department, Yuba City Police Department and the Yuba County Sheriff’s Office. As a smaller team, Barnes said, the Sutter County Sheriff’s Office could not have pulled off an operation of this size without the support of neighboring agencies.
While the sheriff’s office does not have any other operations like Operation Cyber Shield planned, Barnes said, it will continue to support them throughout the state. He added that other agencies have already reached out to him to express their interest in the operation.
Barnes and Greeson urged parents to monitor their children’s online communications, including both what online platforms they are using and whom they are communicating with.
“While having access to the internet gives access for that child to the world, unfortunately, it gives the world access to the child,” Greeson said. “So for the parents out there, I will encourage you to keep a very close eye on your kids.”
Barnes affirmed the sheriff office’s commitment to “protecting children and aggressively pursuing those that seek to exploit them.”
“We’re doing our best to keep our kids safe,” he said.
The Bee’s Rosalio Ahumada contributed to this story.
This story was originally published August 7, 2026 at 2:50 PM with the headline “17 arrests in Sutter County undercover enforcement of online child exploitation.”
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