Earlier this week, Florida deputies arrested over 108 people on human trafficking, prostitution and child predators charges.
Among those, four of them were revealed to be Disney employees.
Known as operation “March Sadness 2”, the operation had Sheriff Grady Judd send out undercover detectives to catch Xavier Jackson, 27, Ralph Leese, 45; Shubham Malave, 27; and Wilakson Fidele, 24.
According to a CBS report, Jackson was caught red handed after “[sending] inappropriate photos of himself and messages to an undercover detective who pretended to be a 14-year-old girl. He was charged with three counts of transmitting harmful material to a minor and one count of unlawful communication.”
In response to the incident, Disney has announced that Leese, Fidele and Jackson will all be placed on unpaid leave, while Malave will not be with the company going forward.
Sheriff Judd took great pride in how huge of a success the operation was:
“The arrests of a human trafficker and four child predators alone makes this whole operation worthwhile. Where there is prostitution, there is exploitation, disease, dysfunction and broken families.”
This news comes just a week after Disney’s CEO announced the suspension of all political donations in Florida due to the state-wide “Don’t Say Gay” bill.
Seems there’s a reason Disney, CNN, etc… were fighting the Florida anti-grooming bill so aggressively. https://t.co/gOUzxto3Eh
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) March 18, 2022
According to an NBC report, “Undercover detectives found the suspects through online sites that identified prostitutes and victims looking for “johns,” authorities said. The detectives then communicated with the suspects, arranged to meet them and arrested the suspects at the location.
The sheriff’s office said members of anti-trafficking organizations would assist to speak with the prostitutes to determine if they were human trafficking victims and to offer help.”
“The arrests of a human trafficker and four child predators alone makes this whole operation worthwhile,” Judd said in a statement. “The online prostitution industry enables traffickers and victimizes those who are being trafficked. Our goal is to identify victims, offer them help, and find and arrest those who are profiting from the exploitation of human beings.”