Florida just sent a clear message to anyone targeting kids online.
Law enforcement isn’t playing games anymore.
And Florida just apprehended 13 of the most notorious child sex predators in a major crackdown.
FDLE launches Operation Twelve Parsecs targeting online child predators
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement executed a five-day operation that swept up 13 men attempting to target children online.¹
Operation Twelve Parsecs went after predators “who were engaging in sexually explicit and harmful communication with minors, transmitting child sexual abuse material, and arranging to meet a minor for sexual activity.”¹
Eight of the arrested suspects came from Pensacola, Florida alone.¹
The ages ranged from 18-year-old Duran Brown to 70-year-old David Girard.¹
These weren’t casual conversations gone wrong — predators brought detailed plans to meet what they thought were real children for sexual encounters.
The operation proved what parents have suspected for years: the threat to children exists in every community, regardless of size.
FDLE partnered with an extensive network of federal, state, and local agencies including the Florida Highway Patrol, Homeland Security Investigations, Naval Criminal Investigative Service, United States Marshals Service, Escambia County Sheriff’s Office, Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office, Gulf Breeze Police Department, Marion County Sheriff’s Office, and Lake City Police Department.¹
Light years won’t separate these sex predators from justice.
FDLE, in partnership with local, state, and federal partners, conducted Operation Twelve Parsecs and arrested 13 offenders engaged in sexually explicit and harmful communications with minors (or at least…who they… pic.twitter.com/6m0jnLgvbd
— FDLE (@fdlepio) October 23, 2025
Elementary school custodian among those arrested
The arrests included people from all walks of life and ages.
Chad Wren, a 56-year-old elementary school custodian from Pensacola, was arrested just days before the full operation was announced.¹
Parents send their children to school trusting adults in those buildings to keep them safe — not prey on them.
Wren faces charges including seduce, solicit, lure, or entice a minor to engage in sexual conduct, travel to meet a minor for sexual activity, and use of a two-way communication device to facilitate a felony.¹
Christopher Glover, 47, added resisting arrest without violence to his long list of charges after police tried to take him into custody.¹
The suspects deployed various tactics using social media apps and messaging platforms to contact who they believed were minors.
Trump’s administration has made child predator arrests a top enforcement priority since taking office in January 2025.
ICE Houston alone arrested 214 criminal illegal alien child predators in the first six months of the Trump Administration.²
13 of the worst child sex predators rounded up!
Florida don’t play! pic.twitter.com/4LlmMt83sZ
— 0HOUR (@0HOUR1__) October 24, 2025
Florida’s record-breaking crackdown on predators continues
Operation Twelve Parsecs marks the latest in a series of major Florida stings targeting online child predators.
Just months earlier in July 2025, Marion County Sheriff’s Office coordinated “Operation Seek and Yee Shall Find Out” — the largest operation of its kind, resulting in 48 arrests and 153 charges.³
Attorney General James Uthmeier announced that operation included six foreign nationals from Jamaica, El Salvador, Dubai, and India who traveled to Florida specifically to exploit children.³
The predators in that operation brought cocaine, guns, condoms, alcohol, marijuana and other drugs to what they thought would be meetings with children aged 13-15.³
Marion County Sheriff Billy Woods warned parents that these operations reveal a harsh reality.
“My office routinely conducts these types of operations,” Woods explained. “With each operation, we catch more and more. The number of offenders only goes up.”³
Woods issued a blunt message to families: “Parents, we will never arrest every single one of them. You have to know what your child is doing online.”³
These operations consistently expose Snapchat as the predators’ platform of choice for targeting children.
Attorney General Uthmeier sued Snapchat in April 2025 for knowingly violating Florida’s social media law that bars children under 14 from having accounts and requires parental permission for 14 and 15-year-olds.³
Uthmeier called social media platforms “the tools of the devil” when describing how predators use technology to target children.³
Snapchat fought back by petitioning a federal judge to dismiss the lawsuit — apparently more concerned with protecting its business model than protecting Florida’s children.⁴
Over and over again, our office is prosecuting predators who are using Snapchat to trade disgusting content and victimize children. Protecting our kids is my utmost priority.
Our statewide prosecutors will ensure that this predator is held accountable for his abhorrent behavior.… pic.twitter.com/jBXqiaBssH
— Attorney General James Uthmeier (@AGJamesUthmeier) September 19, 2025
The Trump Administration’s border security crackdown has proven especially effective at intercepting foreign predators attempting to enter the United States.
ICE arrested criminal illegal aliens over multiple weekends in 2025, including men convicted of attempted rape of a child, sexual assault of minors, and possession of child pornography.⁵
The collaboration between state and federal agencies represents the kind of coordinated enforcement that produces results rather than press releases.
Florida transformed from a target-rich environment for predators into a state where law enforcement actively hunts them down.
These operations work because officers pose as minors online, engage in conversations with adults seeking sexual contact with children, and arrest predators when they show up expecting to meet a child.
What separates Florida’s approach from failed policies elsewhere is the state’s refusal to treat online predator operations as optional or occasional.
Sheriff Woods runs these stings routinely in Marion County because he knows the threat never stops.
Parents need to understand the digital battlefield their children navigate every day — predators operate on platforms designed to make monitoring difficult and conversations ephemeral.
The 13 arrests in Operation Twelve Parsecs represent 13 predators who won’t harm children, at least temporarily.
But the investigation remains ongoing, and authorities expect additional arrests.¹
The message from Florida to predators targeting children online couldn’t be clearer: show up expecting to meet a child, leave in handcuffs facing serious felony charges.
¹ WEAR Staff, “13 arrests made in Florida operation targeting online predators; 8 out of Pensacola,” WEAR, October 23, 2025.
² Department of Homeland Security, “ICE Houston Arrests 214 Criminal Illegal Alien Child Pedophiles in the First Six Months of the Trump Administration,” DHS.gov, July 29, 2025.
³ My Florida Legal, “Attorney General James Uthmeier Announces 48 Arrests, 153 charges in Record-Breaking Undercover Child Predator Operation in Central Florida,” MyFloridaLegal.com, July 2025.
⁴ Florida Politics, “James Uthmeier announces arrest of suspected sexual predator on First Coast,” FloridaPolitics.com, September 21, 2025.
⁵ Department of Homeland Security, “ICE Takes Down Convicted Illegal Alien Sexual Predators, Pedophiles Over the Weekend,” DHS.gov, July 14, 2025.
