A registered sex offender from Aberdeen was among the 22 men arrested Feb. 16 as part of a multiday operation run by the Washington State Patrol and several partner agencies targeting suspected sexual predators using the internet to arrange sex with children.

Curtis Pouncy, 59, is currently being held on $500,000 bail in the Thurston County Jail, charged with the attempted rape of a child of the opposite sex in the second degree, and communication with a minor for immoral purposes.

Pouncy registered as a Level 3 sex offender with a high risk to reoffend at a residence in the 1900 block of Morgan Avenue in August of 2018. He was convicted in 1983 of first-degree rape with a deadly weapon and rape in the second degree in King County and convicted of unlawful imprisonment in King County in 1998.

Dubbed “Operation Net Nanny,” this is the 15th operation spearheaded by the State Patrol’s Missing and Exploited Children Task Force. Since the original operation in August 2015, the task force has netted a total of 246 arrests and rescued more than 30 children across the state, according to a State Patrol statement.

“While the internet is a powerful tool for our nation, criminals using it to target our communities necessitates a need for this type of proactive investigation by our law enforcement troopers and partners in order to combat these horrible crimes,” says State Patrol Chief John R. Batiste. “This operation is aimed at protecting our vulnerable children and making communities safer.”

Undercover law enforcement officers used various websites on the internet and phone applications to communicate with people interested in having sex with children between Feb. 15 and 20. The operation generated hundreds of responses, according to the State Patrol. The would-be perpetrators who were arrested traveled to meet with the undercover detectives posing as underage girls and boys with the intent to engage in sexual activity with children as young as 6 years old.

The other men arrested in the operation came from the Olympia area, Seattle, Tenino, Tacoma, Rochester, Fife, Graham, Shelton, three from Joint Base Lewis McChord and one from Youngtown, Arizona.

Anyone with information related to the suspects listed, or information leading to the identity of victims potentially involved in these cases please contact the task force at mectf@wsp.wa.gov.