- February 24, 2025
A large undercover task force of law enforcement officers spent the last week in Volusia County exposing the underground world of child predators in an operation that resulted in 43 arrests, according to Gary Davidson, spokesman for the Sheriff’s Office. Among the arrests were 22 men who were nabbed after making arrangements to have sex with someone who they thought was a child.
“Keep in mind, if you try to approach children, thinking you’re going to have sex with children, you may be approaching law enforcement,” Sheriff Ben Johnson said in a news conference announcing the arrests.
Called Operation PredaTour 2015, the six-day operation targeted child predators, the prostitution trade and the distribution of child pornography. The Volusia County Sheriff’s Office spearheaded the operation, and was assisted by 20 local, state and federal agencies.
During the operation, undercover law enforcement “chatters,” posed as children 14-years-old or younger on the Internet and waited to be approached by the suspects.
When the conversations turned to meeting the child for sex, the undercover operative made arrangements with the suspects to rendezvous at various locations, including a five-bedroom decoy house in Ormond Beach that had been wired with surveillance cameras to capture the encounters. Once the suspects arrived at their meeting point, an arrest team quickly moved in for the take-down.
The 22 defendants, ranging in age from 20 to 59, arrested during the operation were each charged with three felony offenses: traveling to seduce, solicit, lure or entice a child; use of a computer to seduce, solicit, lure or entice a child; and unlawful use of a two-way communications device. Two Ormond Beach men were arrested: Alan Behnke, age 51, and Chester Ringwald IV, age 25, according to Davidson.
Most of those arrested came from close by and travelled no more than a dozen miles.
Some, though, were far from home, but didn’t have to travel far to get to the decoy house because they were already in town for Bike Week. When arrested, several of the defendants had condoms with them. One brought some chicken nuggets, as requested by the undercover chatter, and also had a knife in his car. After his arrest, one defendant told agents he was sorry and even wrote a letter of apology. Three are facing added charges for sending pictures of their penis to who they thought was a child. The oldest defendant, a 59-year-old man, showed up thinking he was meeting a 12-year-old girl for sex.
Another part of the operation that targeted on-line sex ads and street-level prostitution yielded an additional 19 arrests.
The timing of the operation was no coincidence, as pimps and johns alike are known to bring the illegal sex trade into the area for special events such as Bike Week, Davidson said.