A seven-day undercover operation in Polk County, Florida, ended with 281 arrests and 11 people identified as victims of human trafficking, Sheriff Grady Judd announced at a news conference on Friday, October 30, 2026. The Florida sex sting, dubbed “Polk Around and Find Out II,” was described by the sheriff’s office as the largest sting operation in the county’s history.
The operation brought together detectives from the Polk County Sheriff’s Office and a long list of state, local and federal partners. Officers said the arrests fell into three broad groups: 239 connected to prostitution-related offences, 31 connected to suspected child predators, and 11 other arrests. Those arrested now face 488 new charges in total, including 198 felonies, according to officials.
Sheriff Judd briefed reporters on Friday morning at the Sheriff’s Operations Center in Winter Haven, joined by Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier, Florida Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia, an executive director for the state attorney for the 10th Judicial Circuit, and federal immigration and homeland security officials. The news conference set out the results of a week-long undercover investigation that targeted human trafficking and child predators, as well as prostitution.
According to the sheriff’s office, 117 people travelled to an undercover location to negotiate sex in exchange for money and were arrested for soliciting prostitution. A further 122 people travelled to commit prostitution and were arrested. That second group was screened by detectives working with the organisation One More Child and the Florida Department of Children and Families, to check whether they were being trafficked or exploited by others. It was through that screening that the 11 trafficking victims were identified, and officials said all of them were offered services.
The suspected child-predator arrests arose from online undercover work in which detectives posed as children or as adults with access to children. Officials said two of the suspects in that group were also charged in connection with human trafficking. The sheriff’s office said travelling to meet a minor for unlawful sexual activity is a second-degree felony in Florida, punishable by up to 15 years in prison.
Among those arrested were 17 theme park employees: 13 who worked for Disney and four who worked for Universal Studios. The group also included an Orange County deputy sheriff, a local youth football coach and an active-duty US Navy sailor, officials said. Sheriff Judd said the Disney employees arrested had been fired. The sheriff’s office said 40 of the suspects lived in Polk County itself, while the rest came from elsewhere in Florida and beyond.
Officials also gave a wider profile of the arrests. Thirty-two of those arrested were in the country illegally, from nine countries including Cuba, Venezuela, Mexico and Haiti, according to the sheriff’s office and the attorney general’s office. Twenty-two suspects were collecting public assistance worth $8,373 a month collectively, or about $100,476 a year. Nine of those arrested were on probation for offences ranging from bank robbery to cruelty toward a child, and nine had been caught in earlier sheriff’s office stings, including two in the first “Polk Around and Find Out” operation earlier this year.
Polk County, in central Florida between Tampa and Orlando, has become known nationally for Sheriff Judd’s unusually detailed public briefings after large undercover operations. The sheriff’s office regularly announces the results of stings targeting prostitution, human trafficking and online child exploitation, often with a breakdown of arrests by category and by the jobs held by those arrested.
The first “Polk Around and Find Out” operation ran earlier in 2026, and the second operation followed the same model on a larger scale. This time the partner list was extensive: the Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Office of Statewide Prosecution, the Florida Department of Financial Services, the State Attorney for the 10th Judicial Circuit, and detectives from the Auburndale, Bartow, Davenport, Lakeland, Lake City and Lake Wales police departments, as well as sheriff’s offices in Columbia, Hardee, Hillsborough, Marion and Osceola counties, the US Army Criminal Investigations Division and the US Secret Service.
Human trafficking investigations in Florida often begin not with a trafficking complaint but with a prostitution arrest. That is why, in this operation, detectives screened the 122 people arrested for prostitution rather than treating every arrest the same way. Advocates and law enforcement agencies say that screening matters because some people arrested for prostitution are themselves being controlled by a trafficker, and may need support and protection rather than punishment alone. The sheriff’s office said every person screened was offered services, and the 11 victims identified were connected with help.
The theme park arrests drew particular attention because central Florida’s attractions employ tens of thousands of people and are closely associated with family holidays. Officials did not suggest that any offence took place inside a theme park. The arrests arose from the wider undercover operation, and the sheriff said those working for Disney at the time of their arrest had lost their jobs. Universal has not, in the reporting so far, been quoted on the four employees linked to it in the sheriff’s announcement.
The operation combined two familiar undercover techniques. In one strand, detectives posed online as children or as adults offering access to children, and arrested adults who travelled to meet them. In the other, undercover officers ran a location where people seeking to buy or sell sex could be arrested and, where appropriate, screened for trafficking.
That dual approach explains the headline numbers. The 239 prostitution-related arrests include both buyers and sellers: 117 people who travelled to solicit prostitution and 122 people who travelled to commit it. The 31 suspected child-predator arrests are counted separately, because they arise from a different kind of undercover contact and carry different, more serious charges. The remaining 11 arrests cover other offences connected to the operation.
Officials stressed that the arrests are allegations at this stage. The people arrested have not been convicted in connection with this operation, and their cases will now move through the courts, where prosecutors must prove the charges and defendants will have the chance to respond. The sheriff’s office has not yet published a full list of names or court dates for all 281 people arrested, and it has not said whether further warrants remain outstanding.
Sheriff Judd framed the operation as a direct effort to find people seeking to exploit others. “The focus here is to go out into the underworld and look for those who want to prey upon our folks,” he said at the news conference, according to reporting of the briefing.
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier also announced the results on Friday, presenting the operation as a joint effort against child predators and human trafficking. The presence of the attorney general, the state’s chief financial officer and federal officials at the Winter Haven briefing underlined how many agencies were involved, and how the operation crossed the usual boundaries between local, state and federal law enforcement.
The sheriff’s office itself, in its news release, emphasised the victim-identification side of the work alongside the arrest total. It said the 122 people arrested for prostitution were screened by detectives, One More Child and the Florida Department of Children and Families, that 11 human trafficking victims were identified, and that all of those screened were offered services. That emphasis matters to anti-trafficking groups, which have long argued that a sting should be judged not only by how many people it arrests, but by how many victims it finds and helps.
The Polk County operation matters for three reasons. First, the scale is exceptional: 281 arrests in seven days, with nearly 500 new charges, makes it the largest sting in the county’s history and one of the largest single undercover operations announced in Florida this year. Second, the mix of arrests shows how trafficking, prostitution and online child exploitation investigations overlap in practice, even though they are legally distinct. Third, the occupations of some of those arrested — theme park workers, a deputy sheriff, a youth coach, a Navy sailor — are a reminder that people accused of these offences can hold positions of trust, including jobs involving children and families.
There is also a policy dimension. Florida has some of the most active human trafficking enforcement in the United States, and Polk County’s operations are often cited by other agencies as a model for combining arrest work with victim screening. At the same time, the operation raises familiar questions: how many of the 281 cases will result in convictions, how many of the people arrested for prostitution were themselves victims, and whether the public naming of occupations and employers helps deterrence or risks prejudging cases before trial. Those questions will only be answered as the cases move through the courts.
For central Florida, the announcement lands at a sensitive moment. The region’s economy depends heavily on tourism and family attractions, and news that 17 theme park employees were arrested in a single operation is likely to prompt questions for Disney and Universal about their hiring and safeguarding checks, even though officials have not linked any offence to the workplace itself.
The next stage is the court process. Prosecutors in the 10th Judicial Circuit and the Office of Statewide Prosecution will review the charges, and the 281 people arrested will face arraignment and, where applicable, trial. The most serious charges — those connected to suspected child predators, and any human trafficking charges — carry the longest potential sentences, including up to 15 years for travelling to meet a minor for unlawful sexual activity.
Immigration authorities are also likely to be involved for the 32 people officials said were in the country illegally, although the sheriff’s office has not detailed what action, if any, has been taken in each case. Separately, the 11 people identified as trafficking victims should now be in contact with support services, and their cases may produce further investigations into traffickers rather than ending with their own arrests.
The sheriff’s office has a record of announcing follow-up operations, and the fact that nine people arrested this time had been caught in earlier stings suggests repeat offending remains a problem it is tracking. Whether a third “Polk Around and Find Out” operation follows, and whether it produces a similar arrest total, will be one measure of whether this operation deterred offending or simply caught a new group of people.
Officials said 281 people were arrested in the seven-day operation, facing 488 new charges including 198 felonies.
Eleven human trafficking victims were identified during screening of people arrested for prostitution, and all were offered services, the sheriff’s office said.
The operation was called “Polk Around and Find Out II,” following an earlier operation of the same name in 2026. It was announced at a news conference in Winter Haven on October 30, 2026.
Yes. The sheriff’s office said 17 theme park employees were arrested, including 13 from Disney and four from Universal Studios. Sheriff Judd said the Disney employees arrested had been fired.
No. An arrest is an allegation, not a conviction. The cases must now go through the courts, where prosecutors must prove the charges.
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