The streets of Houston are a little safer after 16 were arrested in a recent child predator sting

A person in a public chat room offers purported 10-year-old Sweetie from the Philippines, left in a computer-generated image, to get undressed for 20 dollars in a private Skype session, as he actually chats to a Terre des Hommes researcher during a media opportunity in Amsterdam, Netherlands, Monday Nov. 4, 2013. The Dutch children’s rights organization is warning of an epidemic of children being paid to perform sexual acts via webcams and is urging police and politicians around the world to crack down on the practice. Terre des Hommes, a Dutch-based organization that battles to stop child exploitation around the world, said Monday that to gauge the scale of the problem it created a fake 10-year-old girl called Sweetie and she was bombarded with online offers to pay for webcam sex shows by child predators from around the world. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

On June 21, Houston police, deputies and investigators arrested 16 people an online sting operation they called “Operation Broken Heart.”

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13 of the 16 men were charged with attempting to have sex with a child they met online. Their ages ranged from 19 all the way to 66 years old.

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One of the men arrested was already a convicted sex offender.

Three were charged with possession, promotion or distribution of child pornography, crimes which carry state and federal charges.

Those arrested face second and third degree felony charges and prison sentences carrying a maximum of 10-20 years.

Officers used social media to strike up a rapport with the criminals, setting up fake meetings with them in public places under the guise of children.

The operation took place over the course of two months and was carried out by the Houston Metro Internet Crimes Against Children Taskforce.

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Officers from Sugar Land, Fort Bend, Katy and other areas all across Houston cooperated as part of the sting, according to a departmental press release.

Mugshots of the men can be viewed on KHOU’s website.

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