Four men were arrested and charged this week as part of a multi-agency human sex trafficking sting in Stone and Taney counties, including the Branson area.
Nayib Saldana, Dalton Parton, Christian Diewert, and Mariko Kwizera have been booked into the Stone County Jail, where they are being held without bail.
There were others arrested but they have not yet been charged.
The sting involved placing a sexually explicit advertisement online with an underage persona. Court documents used to charge the men state the persona told each man a different age, agreed to a payment amount, and provided the time and address for a meeting.
Saldana, 26, was charged with attempted sexual trafficking of a child under age 18. A resident of Little Rock, Arkansas, he was in the area for work.
Court documents used to charge Saldana said he responded to a sexually explicit online ad and was told it was $150 to have sex with a 16-year-old. He showed up to the meeting place with the cash and two condoms.
Parton, 26, of Branson, responded to an online ad Monday and agreed to send $150 through an app in exchange for sex with a 17-year-old.
Shortly after midnight, Parton approached the address where the meeting was planned before turning to a vacant lot where law enforcement officers were waiting and then sped off. He pulled over a half-mile away but initially told officers he was just out for a drive.
A screen in the vehicle connected to Parton's phone showed a map to the agreed upon meeting place, according to court documents.
Diewert, 22, of Springfield, also responded to an online ad and agreed to pay $120 to have sex with a 16-year-old and drove to an address in Stone County. He was arrested as he approached the home and told officers he was a Canadian citizen who had been living in the U.S. for a year.
Parton and Diewert were charged with attempted sexual trafficking of a child under age 18.
Kwizera, 28, of Kansas City, responded to an online ad and agreed to pay $150 to have sex with a 14-year-old girl and offered to bring a case of White Claw, an alcoholic beverage, to the meeting place in Stone County, according to court documents.
Originally from the Democratic Republic of the Congo in Africa, Kwizera was living in Kansas City, Kansas. He was arrested at the meeting place with alcohol and a case of beer.
He was charged with enticement or attempted enticement of a child under age 15.
The investigation Monday and Tuesday involved the Stone County Sheriff’s Office, Taney County Sheriff’s Office, Branson Police Department, COMET Drug Task Force, Missouri Attorney General’s Human Trafficking Task Force, and the Pathways Project.
In a news release, the Stone County Sheriff's Office said investigators made contact with commercial sex providers and provided services and resources. Several of the workers were identified as victims of human trafficking.
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