FLAGLER COUNTY, Fla. — The Flagler County Sheriff’s Office and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement announced a major operation that led to the arrests of dozens of registered sex offenders.
The three-day operation, called Operation Offenders Endgame, resulted in 168 charges against people accused of failing to comply with sex offender registration requirements.
According to Flagler County Sheriff Rick Staly, FDLE checked all registered offenders and predators in the area and found that 40 of 139 were out of compliance.
The violations ranged from alleged failures to update addresses to reportedly lying about secondary devices.
Staly said none of the suspects were considered one-time offenders, including one person who investigators said had 18 felony convictions.
“We’re not just dealing with, in most cases, people who just made a mistake. These are offenders that repeat and repeat,” Staly said.
Among those arrested was 40-year-old Joseph Nicols, who was charged with two counts of failure to report an internet identifier.
FDLE officials said their team had been working for weeks to check compliance among the individuals targeted in the operation.
“Preparation goes into effect at the FDLE for weeks. They are working on these individuals, trying to do everything they can to see. Are they in compliance? Because at the end of the day, that’s what we want,” FDLE Director Melissa Bujeda said.
FDLE officials also said they are seeing trends involving registered sex offenders using dating apps to connect with single parents.
“We’re finding these offenders are actually on dating apps. When we do the confiscation, there are subpoenas for their phone, or there are search warrants for their phones and stuff, and they’re out there probing, and they’re looking for single parents with children,” Glass said.
FDLE and the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office are recommending people use the online sex offender registry to check whether someone is a registered offender or predator.
Click here to download our free news, weather and smart TV apps. And click here to stream Channel 9 Eyewitness News live.