Operation Muddy Waters Nets 69 Arrests in Statewide Child Exploitation Crackdown
Attorney General Lynn Fitch — joined by Homeland Security Investigations Assistant Special Agent in Charge Matt Reidell, Southern District U.S. Attorney Baxter Kruger, Northern District U.S. Attorney Scott Leary, and more than a dozen federal, state and local law enforcement agencies — announced Monday the completion of Operation Muddy Waters, a two-week statewide operation targeting online child exploitation. Officials announcing the results in Oxford put the total at 69 arrests.
The operation ran from July 20 to July 31, with partnering agencies coordinating search warrants and arrests alongside a sex offender compliance check. Officers arrested 13 people on charges related to child exploitation and 48 absconders for sex offender registry noncompliance, seized more than 50 devices, served more than eight search warrants, and secured three immigration detainers.
Fitch said the most important number from the operation was “the one child victim that was saved from a sextortion scheme in progress.”
“Those who choose to hide behind a computer screen to exploit children will not remain hidden,” Reidell said. “Operation Muddy Waters demonstrates HSI’s unwavering commitment to protecting children, supporting victims, and holding offenders accountable.”
Authorities did not release the names of those arrested but described some as coaches, youth pastors and doctors. Leary said one arrestee, a Nigerian national, must be extradited to Mississippi. Officials said the operation is ongoing and more arrests are expected.
“Let today’s message be heard loud and clear: if you exploit a child, if you traffic a child, or if you prey on the most vulnerable among us, we will use every lawful tool available to identify you, arrest you, prosecute you, and seek the toughest sentence the law permits,” Kruger said.
Participating agencies included the FBI, the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation, and sheriff’s offices and police departments from DeSoto County to the Gulf Coast, among them Lafayette, Lee, Harrison, Jackson and Forrest counties and the Oxford, Biloxi and Wiggins police departments.