The North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation (NCSBI) announced the charges against 16 men arrested for allegedly exploiting children or trying to.
For example, charging documents show that one of the suspects, Cody Dale Blasiman, 25, is charged with two counts of first degree sexual exploitation of a minor, while Daniel Joe Mabe, 43, is charged with one count of second degree sexual exploitation of a minor involving a boy who was no more than six years old and 32-year-old Adam Abraham Scanlan is charged with one count of solicitation of a child by computer.
Jairo Rangel Flores, 26, is charged with ten counts of second degree sexual exploitation of multiple girls who were 8 to 14 years old, according to charging documents, while 41-year-old Salvador Joseph Galaviz II is charged with three counts of second degree sexual exploitation with one count involving a girl who was no more than 5 years old.
"Some of these cases originated from cybertips and at least one stemmed from an ongoing Nashville investigation," said North Carolina’s Nashville Police Chief Caleb Shockley at the press conference.
The operation, dubbed Cursed Cupid, is part of ongoing investigative efforts to intercept criminal behavior before it touches children in real life.
Authorities said the arrests mark an attempt to combat online exploitation and bring attention to the dangers children face in digital spaces.
In 2025, more than 80 percent of NCSBI cybertips involved Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, Google, and Facebook, according to NCSBI data.
"Cybertips predominantly come from household names of platforms you would recognize," NCSBI Assistant Special Agent in Charge Kevin Roughton said at the press conference. "Your children probably have those platforms. Where the kids are is where offenders are going to go and find them."
Other defendants in custody include Dawson Matthew Memmel, 21, Dennis Paul Corbett, 87, James Edward Onofrio, 61, Jeremy James Prashaw, 41, Josh Clay Harris, 65, Aaron Murphy, 33, Michael Clark Williams, 76, Nezar Ghaleb Ghaleb, 29, Nicholas Lee Bryson, 35, Raymond Hunter Robson, 64, and 20-year-old William Erik Manning.
The four-day undercover operation took place in February and involved more than 150 officers from 13 law enforcement agencies.
“This operation demonstrates the power of teamwork and shared commitment across jurisdictions,” Shockley said. “Every one of these agencies came together with one goal — to protect children, and remove dangerous individuals from our communities.”
In addition to the NCSBI, participating state and federal agencies included the Nashville Police Department, Nash County Sheriff’s Office, Edgecombe County Sheriff’s Office, Franklin County Sheriff’s Office, Rocky Mount Police Department, Sunset Beach Police Department, Fayetteville Police Department, Huntersville Police Department, Onslow County Sheriff’s Office, the Invictus Task Force, the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Division, Homeland Security Investigations, the Raleigh Police Department, the Nash County District Attorney's Office, and the Nash County Magistrate's Office.
"While these arrests are great and what you're hearing about today is fantastic," Roughton added. "We will not be able to arrest our way out of this problem. We have to educate our children to prevent this problem, to prevent them from being victimized."