A five-month federal operation involving Tulsa Police, the Tulsa County Sheriff's Office and police departments in Broken Arrow, Bixby and Owasso led to federal charges against 39 defendants accused of exploiting children online, U.S. Attorney Christopher J. Nassar announced Monday, Aug. 24, at a downtown Tulsa news conference.

Operation Clean Sweep III, which launched in March, charged 26 defendants with possessing child sexual abuse material, eight with producing it and nine with coercion and enticement for using phones and apps to target minors, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Oklahoma.

Twenty-one children were rescued.

"The most important and rewarding number on this board is 21 child victims identified or rescued," Nassar said at the press conference, reported by KTUL.

More than 25 federal, state and tribal law enforcement agencies participated. Tulsa-area partners named in the DOJ announcement include Homeland Security Investigations' Tulsa office, the FBI, Tulsa Police Department, Tulsa County Sheriff's Office, Broken Arrow Police Department, Bixby Police Department, Owasso Police Department and the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation.

The operation also checked 887 registered sex offenders across 10 of the 11 counties in the Northern District of Oklahoma. Investigators found 34 individuals were not compliant with federal Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act standards, according to the DOJ.

Prosecutors flag AI-generated abuse material

Prosecutors flagged an emerging danger: AI-generated child sexual abuse material. Assistant U.S. Attorney Ashley Robert, who co-led the operation, told reporters that her office has several open cases involving AI-created content, including the recent conviction of Aaron Chase Sanders, 28, of Bixby. Sanders was convicted Aug. 9 of possessing more than 220 images of child sexual abuse material, including an AI-generated video created from a non-explicit photo of a real child, according to KTUL.

Nassar urged parents to treat online safety with the same seriousness as traffic safety, noting that reported online child enticement cases nationwide grew from 80,524 in fiscal year 2022 to 1.4 million in fiscal year 2025, a 1,655% increase, according to figures from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children cited by the Tulsa World. He said predators rarely approach children in person anymore, instead finding victims on social media, gaming platforms and any app with a messaging function.

Officials timed the announcement to coincide with the start of the new school year.

The U.S. Attorney's Office received referrals from eight of the 11 counties in the Northern District. In all, 66 cases were opened for investigation, with additional suspects still under investigation. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children sent 8,621 CyberTips to the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation's Internet Crimes Against Children unit between January and August 2026; 586 of those were assigned to law enforcement in the Northern District.

Nassar said the operation is ending but prosecutions will continue. "The team that built this operation is not standing down," he said in the DOJ announcement.

All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty. Residents who suspect child exploitation can report tips confidentially at report.cybertip.org.