Seven men arrested in Twiggs County child Internet sting

Seven men have been arrested in a sting operation designed to nab child Internet predators, the Twiggs County Sheriff's Office announced today.

Deputies teamed up with a group called Perverted Justice, whose workers posed as 13- and 14-year-old girls on Web sites such as Yahoo.com and Myspace.com. The men, ages 24 to 64, live in various parts of the state and are charged with a variety of charges such as computer child exploitation online and obscene Internet contact with a child. One man was a former high school coach, and another was a youth mentor at a church, investigators said.

From March until July, deputies arrested the men, three of whom went to Twiggs County believing they were going to meet with children but were met by law enforcement instead, Twiggs County Sheriff Darren Mitchum said.

Mitchum said deputies began their investigation in February and hope the operation is a deterrent.

"We all have children, too," he said. "We're going to protect the children in Twiggs County any way that we can."

Come back to macon.com for more details about this story, including the names and charges of those arrested.