FBI

Acting United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, Matt J. Whitworth, announced that four men were indicted by a federal grand jury today, in four separate cases, on charges related to the sex trafficking of children.  The indictments are the result of Operation Guardian Angel, a unique undercover law enforcement investigation targeting the demand for child prostitutes in the Kansas City area.  Shane Allan Childers, 32, of Olathe, Kan., Christopher M. Cockrell, 33, of Armory, Miss., Steven C. Albers, 40, of Kansas City, Mo., and Richard J. Oflyng, 31, of Ottawa, Kan., were each charged with the attempted commercial sex trafficking of a child and with using the Internet and telephone to attempt to induce a child to engage in prostitution in a series of indictments returned by a federal grand jury in Kansas City.  Childers, an active duty naval recruiter, and
Cockrell, a finance manager for an Armory automotive dealership, were each also charged with traveling across state lines for the purpose of engaging in illicit sexual conduct, that is, a commercial sex act with a person under 18 years of age.  Albers is an insurance manager at a Plaza office.  Oflyng is a truck driver who drove his tractor-trailer to an undercover location.
(Kansas City, Mo)
 

Submitted on: 3/10/09