By Emily Keller

internet child exploitation

Two Grande Prairie men among 18 arrested by ALERT’s Internet Child Exploitation unit

Jun 26, 2020 | 10:48 AM

ALERT’s Internet Child Exploitation (ICE) unit says they have recently arrested 18 people across Alberta for offences related to online child sexual exploitation.

From May 20 to June 23, ICE has charged the 18 suspects with 65 offences, with most of the arrests coming from investigative referrals from the RCMP’s National Child Exploitation Coordination Centre.

Included in the arrests are two men from Grande Prairie. Twenty-four-year-old Anas Khatib and 20-year-old Jesse Young have both been arrested by ICE. Charges for the two have not been specified, though ICE says that each suspect arrested is charged with at lease one child pornography offence.

ICE, who previously reported a record number of intakes in March of this year, received 243 reported instances of online child exploitation in the province that month. They say this exceeds the unit’s two-year average of about 110 reports.

“This is a level of activity that has been unparalleled in the existence of the ICE unit,” said Supt. Dwayne Lakusta, ALERT CEO, in a release. “ICE is working incredibly hard to put predators behind bars, but we need parents to do their part and be vigilant of their kids’ online activities.”

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ICE adds that there is no definitive link between any of the suspects besides the nature of the alleged offences. The other suspects arrested include:

• An 18-year-old man from Edmonton, who was a young offender at the time of his arrest;
• Bryan Alas Hernandez, an 18-year-old man from Lethbridge;
• Dean Bertsch, a 62-year-old man from Sherwood Park;
• Brandon Bran Eguizabal, a 26-year-old man from Lethbridge;
• Tyson Campbell, a 27-year-old man from Edmonton;
• Evan Cardinal, a 31-year-old man from Frog Lake;
• Yonatan Castro Linares, a 25-year-old man from Lethbridge;
• Keone Friesen, a 21-year-old man from Calgary;
• Hans-Ulrich Gerber, a 74-year-old man from Red Deer;
• Travis Harder, a 31-year-old man from Sherwood Park;
• Kristofer Hastings, a 28-year-old man from Edmonton;
• Darcy Hazard, a 57-year-old man from Airdrie;
• Wayne Kupsch, a 52-year-old man from Edmonton;
• Richard McCleary, a 61-year-old man from Calgary;
• George Power, a 45-year-old man from Calgary;
• James Venance, a 63-year-old man from Edmonton.

ICE says that they speculate that the rise in the number of investigative referrals in the past few months is related to a ‘digital dependency’ during the COVID-19 pandemic.