ISHPEMING, Mich. (WZMQ) – In a huge collaboration between seven law enforcement agencies, five people have been arrested for trying to meet up with who they thought to a be a 15-year-old child in Marquette County.
A sting house in Ishpeming was set up with permission from the owner. Hundreds of people from the U.P. and surrounding states responded to law enforcement’s advertisement, with the vast majority of them choosing not to meet with the undercover officer.
The age from the five arrested range from 20 to 44 years old with two from Marquette County, one from Iron Mountain, one from Kalamazoo, and one from Wausau, Wisconsin. They are Adam Duellman, Christopher Ek, Jeremy Kohler, Joseph Ross, and Robert Wheeler.
All five face charges of child sexually abusive activity, child accosting for immoral purposes, and using a computer to commit a crime. Ek, from Wausau, faces an additional charge of being in possession of a firearm during the commission of a felony.
Law enforcement is considering the operation a massive success. “For the people that are out there looking to have sex with kids, we’re going to keep doing this,” said Greg Zyburt, sheriff of Marquette County. “We will get you eventually, because it is wrong and we are being proactive.”
The operation ran for three days, 10 hours each, with a total of 39 officers involved.
