On September 13, 2024, members of the Invictus Task Force attended the North Carolina Internet Crimes Against Children Conference hosted by the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigations. During the ceremony, the following Task Force Members were recognized for their involvement in Operation Child Predator: Special Agent Zac Neefe (HSI), Task Force Officers Mike Hargrove (Liberty Police Department), Brittany Beck (Randolph County Sheriff’s Office), Josh Hartong (Randolph County Sheriff’s Office) - not pictured, and Ray Dawson (Randolph County Sheriff’s Office and The Invictus Project).
Operation Child Predator was conducted in August 2023 and resulted in the arrest of 19 child predators who traveled to Randolph County with the intention of having sexual relations with whom they believed to be a child. That operation was the catalyst that spurred the formation of the Invictus Task Force, an investigative collaboration of Randolph, Alamance, Davidson, and Forsyth County Sheriffs, Homeland Security Investigations, and the NC State Bureau of Investigations.
Seth Williams (Davidson County Sheriff’s Office) also a member of the Task Force, was recognized for the Joshua Rojas investigation out of Davidson County.
Randolph County Assistant District Attorney Walt Jones, who works closely with the Task Force, was presented with a Partnership Award for his work with The Invictus Task Force.
Whitney Miller, Vice President of Development for The Invictus Project, was also recognized and presented with a Non-Governmental Organization Partnership Award for the non-profit’s work with the Invictus Task Force.
“Outstanding work and tremendous dedication by each of these members was acknowledged. I couldn’t be prouder of the team.” - Capt. Justin Trogdon, Randolph County Sheriff’s Office.
(L-R) Dawson, Williams, Neefe, Hargrove, Jones, Beck, Miller
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https://www.theinvictusproject.org/
Between August 1st and 3rd of 2023, the Randolph County Sheriff’s Office’s Criminal Investigation’s (CID) ICAC Detective, in collaboration with multiple other law enforcement agencies, executed Operation Child Predator which resulted in the arrest of 19 adult men who traveled to Randolph County with the intention of sexually exploiting a child. These arrests did not account for individuals who made plans to come to Randolph County for those same intentions but did not travel during the dates of the operation. Our team shared investigative leads with law enforcement in the respective jurisdictions, and those individuals were arrested at their locations, one as far away as Illinois. The operation proved that child sexual abuse, exploitation, and trafficking are much more prevalent than most know or are willing to admit.
