10 months ago
5 Metro Detroiters arrested in federal sweep for child sex predators
Federal prosecutors have charged five Metro Detroiters arrested last month in a national five-day sweep for child predators, officials said.
The five were among 205 suspects arrested during the effort, dubbed Operation Restore Justice, according to the FBI.
It also said 115 children were rescued in the operation, which involved all 55 of the FBI's field offices, the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Criminal Division as well as U.S. Attorney’s Offices across the country.
The operation's goal was to identify, track and arrest child sex predators, officials said.
"The Department of Justice will never stop fighting to protect victims — especially child victims — and we will not rest until we hunt down, arrest, and prosecute every child predator who preys on the most vulnerable among us," U.S. Attorney General Pamela Bondi said in a statement. "I am grateful to the FBI and their state and local partners for their incredible work in Operation Restore Justice and have directed my prosecutors not to negotiate."
Officials said the five Metro Detroiters who have been charged with crimes in connection with the operation are:
∎ Adarius Carr, 36, of Belleville. Carr is charged with distribution, receipt and possession of child pornography.
Prosecutors allege Carr communicated with a convicted sex offender over an Internet-messaging service and discussed their sexual interest in children and exchanged images and videos of child pornography.
Agents said they first came across Carr's name after a raid on a convicted sex offender's home in Allen Park in July 2024, according to a federal court complaint filed on April 28 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan.
It said Carr and the sex offender exchanged text messages and shared pornographic videos of children. After agents subpoenaed the account user information connected to the cell phones and messages in the conversation, they identified Carr as a suspect, the complaint said.
Carr's federal court-appointed public defender was not immediately available for comment on Thursday.
∎ Aroul Kaliamurthy, 53, of Westland, Michigan. Kaliamurthy is charged with transportation, possession and access with intent to view child pornography.
Investigators accuse him of traveling to North Carolina and taking hidden camera videos of a naked child. They also said they found child porn on his cell phone and personal computers, which he brought back to Michigan.
Agents received a tip in 2021 that Kaliamurthy had offered someone money to have sex with a child in front of the defendant, according to a federal complaint filed on April 24. The tipster also said he had images of young naked girls on an electronic device.
Authorities executed a search warrant at Kaliamurthy's home in October 2021 and seized his electronic devices, the complaint said. In a lengthy forensic review of the devices, they found the videos of a child taken by a hidden camera and child porn.
Court records did not list an attorney for the defendant but said he is to be represented by a federal court-appointed public defender.
∎ Scott Rocky, 57, of Centerline. Rocky is charged with the receipt, distribution and possession of child pornography.
Authorities allege he shared more than 4,100 files of suspected child pornography online with other users.
Agents came across the defendant's Internet Protocol address last month while searching for users who were downloading child porn, according to a federal complaint filed on May 1. They reviewed images downloaded with the address and discovered they were depictions of children "engaged in sexually explicit conduct."
Investigators executed a search warrant at Rocky's home last week and seized a computer and a hard drive, which contained child pornography, the complaint said.
Rocky's attorney, Arthur Weiss, said he had no comment on the case at this time.
∎ Amor Pedro Martinez, 26, of Ecorse. Martinez is also charged with the receipt, distribution and possession of child pornography. Court records said Martinez had sexually explicit online conversations with others and received child pornography from another user.
According to a federal complaint filed last Friday, FBI agents in Little Rock, Ark., arrested a person in September for distributing child pornography. After examining the suspect's cell phone, they found a chat with another person on an app that included pornographic images of children, the filing said.
Investigators subpoenaed records from the app and the service provider to identify the second person in the chat. They received a tip that the suspect logged on to the account on March 31, federal documents said.
Authorities executed a search warrant at the person's home and interviewed Martinez, who they said admitted to distributing child porn from other users on the app.
Martinez's federal court-appointed public defender was not immediately available for comment on Thursday.
∎ Whitney Williams, 38, is charged with sex trafficking of a minor. Officials accuse him of transporting a minor to engage in commercial sex acts, advertising the victim was available for sex, and renting hotel rooms for the activity.
Officials allege Williams sex trafficked a minor between September and October 2024, according to a federal complaint filed on April 25.
They said investigators found an online commercial sex advertisement for the minor, and an undercover agent called the phone number on it and arranged for a date. The agent was instructed to go to a motel room in Warren.
The complaint said agents recovered the minor from the room, which they found had been rented in Williams' name.
Agents interviewed the victim, who told them she is related to the defendant and has known him her entire life. She said Williams helped her create the commercial sex ad, rented hotel rooms for her to use for dates, set the rates and she paid him in return.
Williams' federal court-appointed public defender was not immediately available for comment on Thursday.
Federal officials also said that seven people were arrested during the operation in western Michigan.
"Every child deserves to grow up free from fear and exploitation, and the FBI will continue to be relentless in our pursuit of those who exploit the most vulnerable among us," FBI Director Kash Patel said in a statement. "Operation Restore Justice proves that no predator is out of reach and nochild will be forgotten. By leveraging the strength of all our field offices and our federal, state, and local partners, we’re sending a clear message: there is no place to hide for those who prey on children."
cramirez@detroitnews.com
@CharlesERamirez
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: 5 Metro Detroiters arrested in federal sweep for child sex predators
5 Metro Detroiters arrested in federal sweep for child sex predators #ChildProtection #JusticeForChildren #OperationRestoreJustice
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