Forty-seven men have been arrested as part of a two-month Vancouver police operation in 2018 targeting people willing to pay teens for sex.
Seven of those men are charged with communicating for the purpose of obtaining sexual services for consideration from a person under the age of 18, include a school teacher and a firefighter.
According to the B.C. Prosecution service, the men charged are:
- Mario Celo
- Jim Malmros
- Jun Jie He
- Nikolaos Dais
- Donald Schroeder
- Kenneth Clement
- Mehran Arefi
Deputy Chief Const. Laurence Rankin says they were arrested as part of a two-month operation that targeted people who were allegedly seeking sex with girls between the ages of 15 and 17.
Rankin says those charged face an allegation of attempting to obtain the sexual services of a person under the age of 18 years.
He says police will continue to focus on those who prey on and exploit young people.
Rankin says detectives posted decoy ads on websites that listed escorts and on social media platforms for sexual services.
Arrests were then made when the men showed up at a hotel as arranged through a text message.
READ MORE: B.C. man sentenced to 34 months in jail after video recording sex with 14-year-old
The Canadian Press
