Nine men face charges following a sting operation conducted in North St. Paul this past winter that sought to bust pursuers of underage sex, authorities say.
Most of the men were charged in Ramsey County District Court this week with one count of engaging in electronic communication relating to or describing sexual conduct with a child, according to the criminal complaints.
Two were charged with solicitation of a child or someone believed to be a child through electronic means.
Authorities with the Minnesota Human Trafficking Investigators Task Force working alongside agents with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension and North St. Paul police conducted the undercover operation during the last week of January, legal documents say.
In most of the cases, the accused men responded to ads posted on Craiglist by undercover agents posing as young women seeking men for “fun,” the complaints said.
When the men responded, the agent shifted gears and revealed that she had lied in the advertisement to get around Craiglist’s rules and was in fact underage, in most cases either 14- or 15-years-old. In one instance, a man responded to an ad posted on Plenty of Fish that explicitly stated the poster was a 14-year-old girl, according to legal documents.
Those charged continued conversing with the undercover agents after learning the “girl” was a minor, and subsequently made arrangements to meet in person at a North St. Paul apartment to engage in sexual conduct, the complaints said.
The men were arrested when they arrived at the residence.
Those charged include: Andrew Allen Swain, 25, of Minneapolis; Leon Wesley Jacox, 23, of Minneapolis; Jeremy Mitchell Osterhout, 30, of New Hope; Enrique Belizar Lopez Ordonez, 33, of Lake City; Lonnie John Jordan, 44, of Nowthen; Zachary Allen Miranowski, 23, of Andover; Luke Charles Shackleton, 28, of Knapp, Wis.; Norberto Hernandez-Pena, 45 of Eagan, and Byron Russell Peterson, 60, of Eagan.
Only Swain and Peterson were charged with solicitation of a child or someone believed to be a child.
In Peterson’s case, agents arrested him after he struck up a conversation via text with an undercover officer posing online as an underage boy.
Upon their arrest, some of the men admitted that they knew they were meeting a minor for sex. A couple said they were attempting to fulfill fantasies about teaching inexperienced partners about sex and denied specifically seeking underage girls.
All of the men are expected to make their first appearance on the charges in September. None had attorneys listed for them yet in court records.