Connecticut man arrested in Florida Keys anti-child exploitation operation

A Connecticut man is the latest in a string of more than a dozen people arrested by a county, state and federal task force targeting human trafficking, child exploitation and prostitution in the Florida Keys.

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The Monroe County Sheriff’s Office announced Tuesday that 75-year-old Kenneth Jay Medve, of Fairfield, Connecticut, was booked on three counts of soliciting a minor for sexual acts and one count of using a two-way device to facilitate a felony.

He was being held without bond at the county’s main jail on Stock Island. Details about the accusations were not immediately available. County officials said his probable cause affidavit was not yet public because his arrest is part of an ongoing investigation.

The sheriff’s office said in a press release that his arrest is part of a task force it’s leading that includes the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, the FBI, U.S. Homeland Security Investigations and Navy and Coast Guard investigators targeting sex crimes in the Lower Keys and Key West.

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Most of the 16 people swept up in the operation are facing charges ranging from soliciting prostitution, committing prostitution and operating as an unlicensed health professional, but two other men were arrested on more serious charges involving children, according to the sheriff’s office.

Timothy William Turso, 47, of Key West, was arrested on charges of using a computer to seduce/solicit/lure a child, traveling to meet a minor for sexual activity, using a two-way device to facilitate a felony, cocaine possession and possessing drug paraphernalia.

He’s being held in county jail on a bond of $311,000, according to jail records.

DeWayne Steven Smith, 41, of Copeland, Florida, is in jail on a bond of $460,000 on charges of using a computer to seduce/lure a child, traveling to meet a minor for sexual activity and using a two-way device to facilitate a felony.

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Attorney information for all three men was not immediately available.