Three Santa Fe men and an Arizona resident have been arrested on charges of soliciting sex with a child, and 10 other people are being sought in connection with a sting operation run by the Crimes Against Children Unit of the Santa Fe Police Department.

Police said one of the men, Shawn Charlee, 35, traveled to Santa Fe from Tuba City, Ariz., apparently convinced that he would be meeting with a 13-year-old girl.

"Instead of meeting a 13-year old girl, he met with a couple detectives from our unit," said Santa Fe police Lt. Louis Carlos.

Arrests at residences around Santa Fe began Jan. 30 with Charlee.

Octaviano Vigil, 37, of 3 Val Verde Drive; Jared Oshell, 35, of an unidentified address in Santa Fe; and Hunter Schumaker, 19, of 1071 Willow Way, also were arrested and charged with child solicitation by electronic communication and criminal sexual communication with a child. Arrest warrants also were issued for up to 10 other unnamed suspects.

Vigil is being held on a cash-only $100,000 bond. Charlee was released Wednesday, according to Santa Fe County jail records, and Oshell and Schumaker were released Friday. Oshell faces arraignment Feb. 13 in Magistrate Court.

Detectives in the unit, who were trained in the attorney general's Crimes Against Children Task Force, posed as 13-year-old children on websites such as Facebook, Craigslist and Google Plus. Since Jan. 23, the detectives engaged in the sting have accumulated a list of about 10 suspected sexual predators.

It didn't take long for officers to collect incriminating evidence through chat sites and online messaging boards, Carlos said. "These types of predators, they immediately start to solicit sexual acts," he said.

"We have worked cases where members of the unit ... will either portray or absorb the identity of a child and use social-media sites as the place where all of this sort of evolves," Carlos said.

Contact Nico Roesler at 986-3089 or nroesler@sfnewmexican.com.




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