Durham man among dozens arrested in multi-state child exploitation crackdown

Eight North Carolina men were arrested, and eight children were removed from abusive situations as part of a crackdown on child pornography and exploitation across eight states, authorities said Friday.

Posted 7:57 p.m. Mar 16, 2018 — Updated 7:57 p.m. Mar 16, 2018

Matthew Burns

, WRAL.com senior producer/politics editor

RALEIGH, N.C. — Eight North Carolina men were arrested, and eight children were removed from abusive situations as part of a crackdown on child pornography and exploitation across eight states, authorities said Friday.

Operation Southern Impact II resulted in 76 total arrests and 13 children being rescued in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia. More than 1,250 computers, cellphones and other digital devices were seized during the operation.

Among those arrested was Juan Alberto Juarez Saravia, 35, of Durham. An undocumented immigrant from El Salvador, he works as a traveling pastor to various Latino churches, authorities said.

Saravia is accused of using a fictitious identity on Facebook to entice a 14-year-old Virginia girl into producing sexually explicit videos of herself, which she then sent to him. He is charged with first-degree sexual exploitation of a minor, second-degree sexual exploitation of a minor and indecent liberties with a child and was being held Friday in the Durham County jail under a $750,000 bond.

The State Bureau of Investigation is trying to determine if there were any more victims, including any undocumented youths who might be reluctant to report crimes, authorities said.

Others arrested in North Carolina include a church deacon from Currituck County, a construction worker from Macon County, a registered sex offender working as a magician in Guilford County and a registered sex offender in Cherokee County who was using young girls to traffic drugs for him.

"It is important to understand that people who prey on children walk among us everywhere. They are in our schools, our churches and hidden in plain sight in all of our neighborhoods," Special Agent in Charge Alan Flora of the SBI Computer Crimes Unit said in a statement. "Many of them believe that they are operating anonymously on the internet, but I assure you they can be caught when adequate resources are committed to that cause."

In addition to the SBI, 24 sheriff's departments and 15 police departments across North Carolina took part in the crackdown.

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