Habersham Man Charged in Child Sex Trafficking Sting

A Demorest man is among those arrested in an operation that targeted and arrested alleged child predators in Georgia in recent days.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation said that as a result of a proactive undercover investigation coordinated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation’s Child Exploitation and Computer Crimes Unit, the Athens-Clarke County Police Department, the United States Attorney’s Office of the Middle District of Georgia, and the District Attorney’s Office of the Western Judicial Circuit, five people were arrested in Athens over a two-day period beginning October 14.

Authorities said the operation targeted child predators that are willing to pay to have sex with a child.

Those arrested were charged with Trafficking of Persons for Labor or Sexual Servitude and additional charges may be forthcoming.

Among those arrested in Athens was 28-year-old Joshua P. Harkins of Demorest.

This operation in Athens was part of a larger nationwide operation organized by the FBI, “Operation Cross Country X.”

The focus, said authorities, of “Operation Cross Country” nationally was to recover underage victims of sex trafficking and to draw the public’s attention to the problem of sex trafficking at home and abroad. The operation in Athens specifically targeted the demand side of child sex trafficking, according to the GBI.