UPDATE: A Grande Prairie man is one of 14 recently arrested as part of an investigation into online child sexual exploitation. 40 year old James Morris is facing charges stemming from Operation ICE Reign, which started focusing on the offenders in June.
Although more than a dozen people have been charged, there’s no definitive link between them other than what they allegedly did. None work in positions of trust or authority.
The Alberta Law Enforcement Response Teams have seen a 75 per cent increase in the number of new child sexual exploitation cases it investigates. Those include child pornography, computer-related child sexual abuse, child luring over the internet, voyeurism of victims under 18 and the child sex trade and tourism.
Thousands of photos and videos of children being abused have been seized.
At least one person from Grande Prairie has been arrested in relation to an child sexual exploitation investigation. Alberta’s Law Enforcement Response Team has arrested 14 suspects across Northern Alberta.
RCMP initiated the Internet Child Exploitation unit in June 2016 and continued the investigation into October. The fourteen suspects have been charged with 33 offences relating to online child sexual exploitation.
We will learn more this afternoon.