WINTER HAVEN, Fla. – Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd held a news conference Friday morning to discuss the arrests of 225 people in an undercover investigation named “Fool Around and Find Out,” as reported by our sister station WKMG in Orlando.
“We had the people coming from 12 different states to be arrested in Polk County, Florida,” Judd said. “Obviously, they must live under a rock, but now they live in the county jail. They also came from Puerto Rico. We arrested a huge number of child predators, eleven; what’s important about this is arresting child predators is very difficult. It takes a talented group of folks."
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Lasting from May 2 to Saturday, May 10, the nine-day multi-agency operation focused on human trafficking, child predators and illegal immigration, according to Judd.
“The youngest we arrested was 17. The oldest was 70,” Judd said. “Our folks stand in the gap between good and evil. They took eight firearms during this operation from eight different suspects people were charged with narcotics. We found 386 new charges, 102 felonies, 284 misdemeanors."
Polk detectives reportedly worked with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Homeland Security Investigations, as well as with investigators from several different sheriff’s offices and police departments, the release states.
PCSO detectives were joined by investigators from the Department of Homeland Security, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, U.S. Army Criminal Investigations Division, Attorney General James Uthmeier Office of Statewide Prosecution, State Attorney for the 10thJudicial Circuit Brian Haas, Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office, Lake County Sheriff’s Office, Pasco County Sheriff’s Office, Auburndale PD, Bartow PD, Clermont PD, Davenport PD, Haines City PD, Lake Alfred PD, Lake Wales PD, Winter Haven PD, and Zephyrhills PD.
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Detectives charged a total of 102 felonies and 284 misdemeanors during the investigation. The suspects’ prior criminal histories included a combined total of 400 felonies and 519 misdemeanors, with charges such as premeditated murder, attempted murder, kidnapping, robbery, aggravated battery, and sexual assault.
Polk County Sheriff's Office news release (excerpt)
Of the 225 people arrested, 36 of them were in the country illegally, the sheriff’s office said.
“I can tell you that about 15% of all of our arrests in the human trafficking operation and our predator operation, about 15% were here illegally in this country. (...) They came from Venezuela, Cuba, Honduras, Mexico, Haiti, Colombia, Guatemala. 22 of these folks were receiving government assistance,” Judd said.
Among the arrests of those accused of soliciting prostitution is retired NFL player Adarius Taylor, 34, who Judd said is accused of bringing and leaving his 6-year-old child in a vehicle “when he went to do the operation."
"The 6-year-old child has a lot of medical issues and he (Taylor) left this child alone that should have never been left alone because of medical conditions. DCF was on site, took possession of the child immediately, found mom, mom came and got the child, the child is doing fine," Judd said. “This guy here, you know, obviously he must have hit one too many people as a linebacker because his brain cells are scrambled. He shouldn’t have shown up in the first place, but to leave that child, my goodness. So he picked up a child neglect charge along with everything else.”
Other notable arrests include those of suspects who Judd described as “active Navy, 13 veterans, a medical doctor (...) engineers, insurance brokers and agents, regional vice president of a timeshare, Walmart store manager, party planner (...) I.T. database guy for the federal government, crane operators, business owners and, in the medical field, RN, CNA, medical techs; we had a lot of different people from a lot of walks of life here.”