Year-long operation results in arrests, education for deputies
Published 12:10 am Thursday, January 23, 2025
photo courtesy of Sheriff Travis Allen Investigators in action during Operation Blue Light.
Rowan County Sheriff Travis Allen talks about the year-long project targeting sex crimes including prostitution, sex trafficking and child predation. Photo by Elisabeth Strillacci
From left, Rowan County Sheriff's Office Detective Amber Weaver, Detective Christopher Greer, Lt. Ryan Barkley and Detective Daniel Fero talk about Operation Blue Light, a year long invetigation into sex crimes ranging from prostitution to online solicitation of children. Photo by Elisabeth Strillacci
Christopher Carras
Edgar Malcom
Eric Lukjanczuk
Lewis Babbidge
Oscar Osorio
For the last year, deputies in the Rowan County Sheriff’s Office have been working on understanding, uncovering and eventually making arrests related to sex crimes in a three-phase sting operation, including street-level prostitution, online prostitution and online child solicitation.
The entire project resulted in 21 arrests and an additional 20 being designated as offenders, though investigators were unable to identify them due to internet anonymity.
The operation took its name from the Department of Homeland Security’s Blue Campaign and from Rowan County’s own non-profit, Project Light Rowan, both of which work to bring awareness to human trafficking. Operation Blue Light was intended to be research based so investigators not only could get some offenders off the streets, but so the department could get a broader, firmer understanding of the underlying causes and issues in sex crimes and trafficking, and to understand its prevalence in Rowan County.
Lt. Ryan Barkley, who oversaw the operation, noted that well over 40 deputies had participated in the effort, and Sheriff Travis Allen added “that’s between a quarter and a third of our sworn staff, so you can see the resources we devoted to this.”
Allen said he gives praise to the investigators who worked the operation.
“All I did was say yes when they asked if they could do it,” he said. “They are the ones that did the work, and they did while continuing to serve the residents of Rowan County in all other ways. No calls went unanswered, but this was exhausting work.”
In a report on the project, Barkley said RCSO met with other local, state and federal agencies, but in the planning and execution, received assistance only from Salisbury Police and the State Bureau of Investigations (SBI) because “no other agency shared our same goals. Most agencies have discarded efforts to tackle prostitution based on the belief that it is a ‘victimless crime.'” The department did get support from Rowan’s District Attorney Brandy Cook for the operation.
The first phase involved targeting those who would be patrons of street-level prostitution and was run during the day from Oct. 10-14, 2024.
“Thought to be a crime of the past, within minutes of an undercover female officer being placed at the intersection in Salisbury, she was solicited for sexual acts,” the report said.
Each of the 15 men who solicited the officer was arrested, issued a criminal citation, and interviewed to learn about their history and motives. All claimed it was a crime of opportunity.
The second phase was executed on March 4-6, 2024, during daytime hours, and then again on March 13 during the evening hours. Working in space provided by a local hotel, investigators responded to online ads offering sex services, inviting workers to come to the hotel for the transaction. When people showed up, the investigators interviewed them, trying to get an understanding of their motivation in engaging in prostitution.
According to the report, “most were suffering from drug addiction or poverty and did not have other means of gainful employment. Some were local to Salisbury while others traveled from surrounding counties. In all, nine individuals were contacted during this phase and more could have been met, however time restraints prevented officers from continuing the sting.”
During the evening operation, a 16-year-old girl was sent by a 33-year-old man who was, for lack of a better term, her “pimp,” in control of any money she made. The young woman was clearly a victim of sex trafficking and investigators then halted the operation to focus on addressing her case. Deputies partnered with the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department, FBI and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) to conduct an investigation. The victim was sent for mental and physical treatment and the offender, a convicted felon out on parole, was arrested and charged with promoting prostitution of a minor. He pled guilty in October 2024 and was sentenced to a minimum of 7.4 years in prison.
The final phase focused on child solicitation via the internet, and was conducted between Dec. 10-12, 2024. A private residence was used as a designated meeting location for officers posing as children online. As adults solicited them for sexual activities, they were directed to the target house where deputies were waiting to make an arrest.
“With more than eight detectives chatting with suspects over the course of three days, five men were able to be identified and arrested, with one showing up at the target house. Approximately 20 more suspects committed criminal offenses, however due to anonymity, they were not able to be identified,” the report said.
All five arrested in phase three were charged with solicitation of a child by computer, and some were also charged with dissemination of obscene material to a minor, because “whether they were asked for or not, they would send the person they thought was a child photos of a graphic nature,” said Barkley.
And it wasn’t just talking to people they thought were children. Barkley said one person he talked to wanted to talk to the child’s parent, and “I then posed as a bad parent, and had a 45-minute conversation with someone telling me in detail the things he wanted to do to my children.”
The work took not just a physical toll on the investigators, but an emotional one. Barkley said being a father made him intensely affected by the work and admitted he was brought to tears.
Weaver, who initially was posing as an 11-year-old, said she “had to step out for a minute, get some air, and yes, I cried, and when I came back, I had to pose as someone a little older.”
Detectives posed as children ranging from ages 5 to 14, and all four noted that they were disturbed by the control and the graphic nature of what adults were willing to say to children.
“When we do these operations, we are away from our own families,” said Greer, “and the emotional toll of it all can be a lot.”
Fero also explained that the operation work didn’t end at 5 p.m.
“We had designated times we had to be here and what time the investigation would start and end, but just because we got to go home didn’t mean that person stopped,” he said. “If it happened over the course of a couple of days, and the person wasn’t initially comfortable meeting, you had to continue that conversation.”
He pointed out that children don’t get off the internet at 5 p.m., so the detectives could be at home, sitting with family, talking with loved ones, but still be on the phone/internet continuing the investigative conversation.
“Puts a lot of things in perspective,” he said.
One of the arrests that stood out the most, said Barkley, was a conversation that lasted about two weeks. The man was identified as a full-time member of the military, stationed at Fort Liberty, and the U.S. Army CID assisted in that investigation.
“That was shocking to me because this man was close to retirement in the military and was willing to risk it all to come to Rowan County to sleep with a child,” Barkley said.
In reviewing the operation, Barkley said investigators determined that Rowan County “is directly affected by human trafficking. Although this operation only scratched the surface, it is obvious that citizens, their children, businesses and travelers are all witnessing aspects of human trafficking in Rowan County.”
“Rowan County would greatly benefit from additional manpower to primarily focus on human trafficking crimes. It would also benefit to partner with more local agencies that surround Rowan County in a task force model approach to impact and deter these crimes that impact local victims,” the report concluded.
Allen said the department will continue to make arrests for sex crimes, and will continue to work to ferret out adults who would harm children, but he said he also encourages his deputies to study and work on other areas.
“The growth, the learning, is essential, and whatever they come and ask if they can do, I’m probably going to say yes,” he said. “But the internet is not only here, but is going to get worse, so I encourage my investigators to learn, to research and to tackle problems proactively, rather than always in a reactive way. The way to prevention is getting ahead of something, and that was what this operation was all about. I absolutely encourage that and I applaud them for the work they’ve done here.”
Arrests from phases one and two have been reported previously. The five most recent arrests were a result of the suspects soliciting children for sexual acts over the internet. Those arrested were:
• Forty-three-year-old Oscar Adrian Osorio of Fayetteville. Osorio, a full-time employee of the United States Army, was charged with solicitation of a child by computer and dissemination of obscene material to a minor. He was taken into custody at Fort Liberty in Fayetteville where he was stationed. The Army’s Criminal Investigation Division assisted Rowan County’s detectives who then took custody of Osorio, placing him in the Rowan County jail under a $20,000 secured bond.
• Sixty-year-old Christopher Anthony Carras of Kernersville was charged with solicitation of a child by computer. Carras was arrested as deputies executed a search warrant at his home with the assistance of the Winston-Salem Police Department. Carras was placed in the Rowan County jail under a $400,000 secured bond.
• Seventy-year-old Edgar Jack Malcom, of Newberry, South Carolina, was arrested at a home in Salisbury where he showed up, thinking he was going to meet a juvenile and have sex. He was met by sheriff’s deputies, arrested on-site, and charged with solicitation of a child by computer. He was given a $150,000 secured bond.
• Forty-two-year-old Eric Lukjanczuk, of Lewisville, was charged with solicitation of a child by computer and dissemination of obscene material to a minor. He was given a $20,000 secured bond.
• Fifty-six-year-old Lewis Scott Babbidge of Indian Land, South Carolina, was charged with solicitation of a child by computer and was arrested at his South Carolina home by deputies with the Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office. He was extradited to N.C. on Jan. 14 and was placed in the Rowan County jail under a $25,000 secured bond.
