Detectives with the San Juan County Sheriff’s Office in New Mexico arrested a Dolores man for allegedly attempting to meet a 14-year-old girl for sex at a park in Farmington on Monday, Dec. 17.
Jeremy Lee, 27, was arrested on suspicion of child solicitation by electronic communication device and meeting a child between the ages of 13 and 16 and two counts of child solicitation by electronic communication of a child between the ages of 13 and 16, according to a San Juan County Sheriff’s news release.
According to the release, detectives who are part of the New Mexico Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force conducted an online predator operation between Dec. 13 and 17. Lee allegedly initiated a conversation with a 14-year-old girl on Dec. 13 and continued through Dec. 17. The conversations were sexual in nature, the news release states.
“There was an ad posted online, is what started the whole thing, and he solicited an undercover officer, thinking the undercover officer was a 14-year-old girl,” San Juan County Sheriff’s Detective Erik Barlow told The Journal.
On Dec. 17, Lee reportedly drove from Cortez to a park in Farmington. Detectives detained and questioned Lee. Barlow, who conducted the interview, said Lee admitted that he communicated with what he believed was a 14-year-old girl and he drove to Farmington to meet her for sex.
Barlow said the New Mexico Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force generally focuses on perpetrators in New Mexico, but every now and then someone is willing to travel to them.
“We don’t like importing sex offenders, but if they have broken the law and decided to come to us, we’ll take it,” Barlow said.
sdolan@the-journal.com