Nine arrested Friday in dayslong online child sex sting

A dayslong child sex sting run by multiple area law enforcement agencies ended in the arrest of nine people late last week.

The operation was the 12th statewide since 2015, when the Washington State Patrol began “Operation Net Nanny” run by the Missing and Exploited Children Task Force, a division of the Washington State Patrol. Several law enforcement agencies partnered on the operation, including U.S. Homeland Security, the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office and Spokane Police Department.

Court records say undercover officers posed as 13-year-old boys and girls on social media websites and online classifieds such as Craigslist, where they advertised “young looking for older daddy.” In each case, the undercover officer was clear about their age before responding to messages.

Trooper Jeff Sevigney, spokesman for the WSP, said the operation generated “hundreds of responses.”

Fire Carrol, 30, Kyle Dettore, 30, Dustin Harbour, 33, Pierce Schober, 43, Jeffrey Kvasnicka, 44, John Cotton, 49, Wesley Calhoun, 26, Jeff Raymer, 42 and Robert Brogdon, 40, all face multiple felony charges, including attempted rape of a child and communicating with a child for immoral purposes. They are scheduled to appear in Spokane County District Court Monday afternoon.

“While the internet is a powerful tool for our nation, criminals using it to target our communities necessitates a collaborative effort by our law enforcement troopers and partners to combat these horrible crimes,” said WSP Chief John R. Batiste in a news release. “This operation is protecting our vulnerable children and making communities safer.”

To date, “Net Nanny” has obtained 182 arrests and rescued 29 identified child victims throughout the state, troopers said in a news release.

In Spokane County, 13 people were arrested in 2016 in a similar sting. Sgt. Carlos Rodriguez, who runs the task force with his partner, said then that he could average two arrests a day just based on the amount of responses these ads can generate.

“When you think of task forces, you think of 10 or 15 people going out and getting bad guys,” he said in a 2016 story. “Unfortunately, right now, it’s just me and my partner.”

The suspects in the most recent operation traveled to meet with undercover detectives in person, according to court records. From there, they were arrested.