Alpharetta Police arrest 5 in child exploitation sting

By SHELBY ISRAEL shelby@appenmedia. com

ALPHARETTA, Ga.

— The Alpharetta Department of Public Safety Special Investigations Unit announced the arrests of five and outstanding warrants for two suspects in an undercover child exploitation operation March 29.

Police charged Neal Wurtz, 25, Jose Hernandez, 28, Douglas Cropf Jr., 30, and August Rich, 23, with felony use of a computer to entice a child to commit an illegal act. Erick GarciaSalinas, 34, and the four suspects were also charged with felony criminal attempt to commit child molestation.

Police Lt. Andrew Splawn said detectives posed as underage children in internet chatrooms and on websites in order to identify and arrest predators who allegedly believed they were soliciting sex from children.

Splawn said the operation ran from Dec. 1-3, 2022, and it was a joint effort between the city, the Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office Internet Crimes Against Children Unit and the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office.

Four of the suspects were arrested immediately after they traveled to Alpharetta to meet the detectives who posed as minors. Detectives arrested the fifth suspect in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

While the websites used in the operation were not designed for catching predators, Splawn said the department had chosen the sites based on trends reported by previous child victims.

“Alpharetta Police Department genuinely cares about the protection of children,” Splawn said. “And that’s the reason that we run this type of operation is because children are a very special population, and we want to run proactive operations to make sure that we can keep them as safe as possible.”

As of press time, two suspects have not been arrested.

Tyquand Caldwell, 26, and Christopher Frazier, 43, are wanted for felony use of a computer to entice a child to commit an illegal act. Caldwell was also charged with felony criminal attempt to commit child molestation.

Splawn asked the public to contact the department with any information on the suspects or their whereabouts.