More information is coming to light about Operation Janus, a month-long operation to take down alleged child sex predators.
As The Dallas Express reported, Operation Janus was a collaborative effort of multiple law enforcement agencies to crack down on child pornography in North Texas. It resulted in the rescue of 28 children from apparent online sexual exploitation and led to the filing of over 80 criminal charges against 59 people.
Local news outlet Fox 4 recently obtained court documents related to three of the 59 suspects: 69-year-old Gary Don Mathis, 29-year-old Maximillian Arya, and 56-year-old Juan Blaylock.
The documents not only provide further detail into how officers were able to investigate, track down, and arrest the suspects in Operation Janus, but they also describe the inappropriate content that they are accused of being connected to.
Fox 4 refrained from reporting on the latter due to their graphic nature.
Jeff Rich, the lead Plano detective in the operation, spoke to Fox 4 Dallas about such content.
“We see the worst of society, the darkness of society, to be able to shine a light into the darkness and rescue these children is hugely important,” said Rich, Fox 4 reported.
In the case of Mathis, Arya, and Blaylock, all three men were residents of Dallas and living within miles of each other.
The men drew the attention of authorities after being reported by popular social media apps and web services for allegedly inappropriate content, according to the court records.
In the case of Blaylock, per Fox 4, Microsoft Bing told the police that 22 files containing images of child porn had allegedly been uploaded from his laptop. It was later seized by investigators after serving a warrant on February 2 at Blaylock’s apartment off Arapaho Road and Preston Road in North Dallas.
Just 3 miles away, Arya was reported by the social media app Kik for allegedly inappropriate content. Kik contacted the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in May 2022, according to court documents.
Dallas police similarly served a search warrant of Arya’s home on February 3 and allegedly found gruesome files and videos.
Mathis was allegedly found with thousands of child pornography files on four thumb drives in November 2022, although Fox News did not specify how he came to the attention of the authorities.
Sexual offenses have seen an 11% increase this year in Dallas, according to the Dallas DP’s daily crime brief. The city continues to struggle with its rising crime rates and to protect the most innocent among us.
Recently, a trucker based in Dallas was arrested for allegedly kidnapping a teenage girl, The Dallas Express reported. The suspect, Richard S. Laird, had allegedly been in contact with the teen over the internet prior to her disappearance from her home. He faces nine counts of sexual assault of a child along with the charge of aggravated kidnapping.