Three men have been arrested in Cambodia and returned to the United States after they were caught having sex with children in the Asian locale. This is the first time Operation Twisted Traveler, an international effort to reduce the numbers of Cambodian sex tourists, will result in a trial. Prosecution starts this week in a Federal Court in Los Angeles.
The suspects, Ronald Boyajian, Erik Peeters, and Jack Sporich, are all past sex offenders who have lived in California. Sporich was labeled as one of the most dangerous sex offenders in California throughout the nineties. He previously spent over 9 years in prison for molesting over 500 boys since the sixties. After his release, he moved to Arizona, but also built a mansion in Cambodia, where he said to lure in boys between the ages of 9 and 13 by means of candy, toys and money.
While in Cambodia, Boyajian is said to have had sex with a 10 year old girl and Peeters and Sporich are accused of molesting at least four boys. Each count may result in 30 years in prison.
“Some part of what we’re trying to do here is change attitudes and change acceptance of child-sex tourism as something that’s always been around or can’t be changed,” Carol A. Rodley, the U.S. ambassador to Cambodia, said in a telephone interview. “And I think that’s very much true of the Cambodian police — that their attitudes about the issue have changed in part because of the collaboration.”
San Diego criminal attorney James J. Warner is eager to see how the trial will go, as this level of cooperation between two international governments has so far been unprecedented.
To read more about the upcoming trial, please read about it in Fox News or The Washington Post.
After years of warfare between authorities and rivaling drug cartels, Mexico has taken a progressive stand towards stopping the bloodshed by legalizing limited personal drug use. The effort may help save the Mexican government quite a bit of money on catching and penalizing drug users, which may free up more resources to battle the mafioso’s themselves.