Decatur, GA (February 11, 2025) – A statewide child exploitation operation dubbed “Operation Byte Down” has led to the arrest of seventeen people. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) Child Exploitation and Computer Crimes Unit, along with 33 other agencies that are members of the Georgia Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force, participated in the operation.

Operation Byte Down identified 13 children that were living in households where online child sexual exploitation was occurring and one of those arrested admitted to current or prior hands-on sexual offenses against a child.

The following people were arrested during Operation Byte Down and charged with Sexual Exploitation of Children and other related offenses:

  1. Kong Hon Yim, age 63, of Duluth, Georgia, booked into the Gwinnett County Jail
  2. Ezequiel Ortiz, age 30, of Duluth, Georgia, booked into the Gwinnett County Jail
  3. Jianglin Meng, age 26, of Norcross, Georgia, booked into the Gwinnett County Jail
  4. Morgan Albright, age 18, of Winder, Georgia, booked into the Barrow County Jail
  5. Steven Michael Yanizeski, age 28, of Evans, Georgia, booked into the Columbia County Jail
  6. Chaunansheng Fu, age 28, of Doraville, Georgia, booked into the DeKalb County Jail
  7. Steven Ray Mendenhall, age 53, of Macon, Georgia, booked into the Bibb County Jail
  8. Elvis Beltran Pineda, age 25, of Alpharetta, Georgia, booked into the Forsyth County Jail
  9. Richard Jason Lowery, age 43, of Augusta, Georgia, booked into the Richmond County Jail
  10. Patrick Dulebohn, age 43, of Savannah, Georgia, booked into the Chatham County Jail
  11. Dennis Farmer, age 65, of Tifton, Georgia, booked into the Tift County Jail
  12. Christian Havanki, age 29, of Pooler, Georgia, booked into the Chatham County Jail
  13. Thomas Walker, age 37, of Helen, Georgia, booked into the White County Jail
  14. Derrick Long, age 25, of Kingsland, Georgia, booked into the Camden County Jail
  15. Jonathan Sells, age 39, of Cleveland, Georgia, booked into the White County Jail
  16. Todd Shelton, age 61, of Acworth, Georgia, booked into the Cherokee County Jail
  17. Timothy Grimsley, age 36, of Tifton, Georgia, booked into the Tift County Jail

Operation Byte Down was a statewide, multi-jurisdictional coordinated effort by the Georgia ICAC Task Force to identify and arrest those involved in technology facilitated crimes against children. Operation Byte Down involved months of planning and included both proactive and reactive cases investigated by the GBI and affiliate agencies with the Georgia ICAC Task Force. Proactive investigations consisted of targeting peer-to-peer network users sharing Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM), commonly known as child pornography, and undercover chat investigations targeting those that communicate with and arrange to meet who they believe to be a child for the purpose of engaging in sexual acts. Reactive investigations consisted of working CyberTips received from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that involved the possession, distribution, and/or manufacturing of CSAM.

During Operation Byte Down, law enforcement agencies within the Georgia ICAC Task Force executed 30 residential search warrants across the State of Georgia. These search warrants and other enforcement actions resulted in the arrest of 17 people. Digital forensic investigators previewed 137 electronic devices on scene and seized 361 electronic devices, including cellular phones, tablets, computers, hard drives, and various electronic data storage devices.

More arrests are possible once complete forensic processing of the seized electronic devices are complete.

In addition to the GBI, the host agency for the Georgia ICAC Task Force, the following agencies participated in Operation Byte Down:

  • Barrow County Sheriff’s Office
  • Bartow County Sheriff’s Office
  • Bibb County Sheriff’s Office
  • Blakely Police Department
  • Brookhaven Police Department
  • Carroll County Sheriff’s Office
  • Chatham County Sheriff’s Office
  • Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office
  • Clayton County Sheriff’s Office
  • Columbia County Sheriff’s Office
  • Dekalb County District Attorney’s Office
  • Doraville Police Department
  • Effingham County Sheriff’s Office
  • Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office
  • Georgia State Patrol
  • Gwinnett County Police Department
  • Hall County Sheriff’s Office
  • Henry County Police Department
  • Helen Police Department
  • Houston County Sheriff’s Office
  • Jasper County Sheriff’s Office
  • Kingsland Police Department
  • Muscogee County Sheriff’s Office
  • Paulding County Sheriff’s Office
  • Pooler Police Department
  • Richmond County Sheriff’s Office
  • Roswell Police Department
  • Savannah Police Department
  • St. Marys Police Department
  • Tifton Police Department
  • United States Secret Service
  • Whitfield County Sheriff’s Office
  • Woodstock Police Department

This investigation is part of the ongoing effort by the Georgia Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force, housed within the GBI’s Child Exploitation and Computer Crimes Unit, to identify those involved in the trade of child sexual abuse material. The ICAC Program, created by the U.S. Department of Justice, was developed in response to the increasing number of children and teenagers using the Internet, the proliferation of child sexual abuse material, and the heightened online activity by predators searching for unsupervised contact with underage victims.

Anyone with information about other cases of child exploitation is asked to contact the Georgia Bureau of Investigation Child Exploitation and Computer Crimes Unit at 404-270-8870 or report via the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children CyberTipline at CyberTipline.org.

Anonymous tips can also be submitted by calling 1-800-597-TIPS (8477), online at https://gbi.georgia.gov/submit-tips-online, or by downloading the See Something, Send Something mobile app.

Contact

Special Agent in Charge Brian Johnston

[email protected]