Polk County sting nets 281 arrests, including 13 Disney workers and an Orange County deputy

A seven-day undercover operation by the Polk County Sheriff's Office ended with 281 arrests, including 13 Walt Disney World employees, four Universal Studios employees, an Orange County sheriff's deputy, a youth football coach and an active-duty Navy sailor, the agency announced Friday, Oct. 30. Sheriff Grady Judd called the effort "Polk Around and Find Out II," the second operation under that name this year, and said detectives charged two of the suspects with human trafficking. All of those arrested are presumed innocent unless proven guilty in court.

Judd scheduled a 9:30 a.m. news conference at the Sheriff's Operations Center at 1891 Jim Keene Blvd. in Winter Haven to present the results. Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier, Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia, 10th Judicial Circuit State Attorney's Office Executive Director Chris Nelson and David Gritte, acting deputy field office director for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, were listed as joining him. The sheriff's office said it would release arrest affidavits and booking photos along with the briefing.

What the operation found

According to figures released by the sheriff's office, 239 of the 281 arrests were tied to prostitution: soliciting a prostitute, offering to commit prostitution, or aiding, abetting or transporting prostitutes. Within that group, 117 people traveled to an undercover location to negotiate sex for money, and 122 traveled there to sell sex.

Another 31 arrests involved suspected child sexual predators, the most serious category in the operation. Detectives charged two of those 31 with human trafficking in addition to their other charges. The remaining 11 arrests were for other offenses, which the sheriff's office did not itemize in its initial release.

The agency also reported that 22 of the suspects said they were collecting public assistance, totaling $8,373 per month, or about $100,476 a year. Thirty-two of those arrested were in the country illegally, according to the sheriff's office, and came from nine countries. The office did not list the countries in the figures released before the briefing.

The Orange County deputy

The deputy was identified as Eric Raymond, who has worked for the Orange County Sheriff's Office since August 2020 and was assigned to its Uniform Patrol Division. According to the Polk County Sheriff's Office, Raymond answered a fake online escort advertisement, agreed to meet an undercover detective and agreed to pay for sex before he was taken into custody. He was among the 117 people arrested for soliciting prostitution and faces one count of that misdemeanor offense.

"Orange County Sheriff's Office Deputy Eric Raymond should have known better," Judd said in a news release. The Orange County Sheriff's Office said Raymond was arrested Sunday by Polk deputies and has been relieved of all law enforcement duties and reassigned to administrative work pending the outcome of the criminal case. Orange County Sheriff John Mina said the agency is "committed to ensuring that those who serve the community as deputies follow the laws." The Orange County agency said it would conduct its own internal investigation once the criminal case is resolved.

Raymond is not the first Orange County Sheriff's Office employee arrested in one of Judd's stings. In September 2025, a recently hired Orange County academy recruit was arrested on a prostitution charge in the operation Polk deputies called "Fool Around and Find Out, Again," and was fired, according to coverage at the time.

Theme park workers, a coach and a sailor

The sheriff's office said 17 of those arrested worked at Central Florida theme parks: 13 at Disney and four at Universal Studios. The agency's initial figures did not say which charges the theme park employees face or name them.

The youth football coach and the active-duty Navy sailor were among the 31 people arrested as suspected child sexual predators, according to the sheriff's office. Neither man had been publicly identified in the coverage available before the briefing, and the sheriff's office did not say which of the 31 were the two charged with human trafficking.

Disney employees have turned up in several of Judd's past operations. In 2022, the sheriff's office announced 108 arrests in an operation called March Sadness 2 that included Disney employees and a former judge, according to CBS News.

Trafficking victims and screening

Detectives and social service organizations screened the 122 people who traveled to the undercover location to sell sex, the sheriff's office said, to determine whether any of them were being trafficked or exploited. That screening identified 11 human trafficking victims, who were offered support services on site.

The screening step has been part of each of Judd's recent operations. In the first "Polk Around and Find Out" operation, announced May 1, 2026, the sheriff's office said screenings identified seven possible trafficking victims, and that social service groups including One More Child, Heartland for Children and the Florida Alliance to End Human Trafficking offered services to suspects during the operation.

How it compares with earlier stings

The October operation is the third large-scale trafficking and child predator sting the sheriff's office has announced in a little over a year, and the arrest count has grown each time. The table below uses figures the sheriff's office released for each operation.

The September 2025 operation also lasted seven days and included 46 people the sheriff's office said were in the country illegally, from 10 countries. The May 2026 operation produced 439 charges, 298 of them felonies, and 34 suspects the sheriff's office said were in the country illegally. In May, the agency said 167 of the suspects came from outside Polk County, and their ages ranged from 18 to 68.

State and federal partners have been a constant. The May release listed the Department of Homeland Security, Uthmeier's Office of Statewide Prosecution, the Florida Department of Financial Services, the Florida Department of Children and Families and the 10th Circuit State Attorney's Office among the participating agencies, along with several local police departments and neighboring sheriff's offices. Uthmeier and Ingoglia also appeared with Judd when the September 2025 results were announced.

What's next

Most of the cases will be prosecuted by the State Attorney's Office for the 10th Judicial Circuit, which covers Polk, Hardee and Highlands counties. Soliciting and offering to commit prostitution are generally misdemeanors for first offenses in Florida, while charges tied to traveling to meet a minor and human trafficking are felonies that carry far heavier penalties.

Individual court dates had not been announced, and the sheriff's office had not said whether additional warrants were outstanding. The 32 suspects the agency described as being in the country illegally could face immigration proceedings in addition to their criminal cases, given ICE's role in the operation. The affidavits and booking photos the sheriff's office planned to release Friday are expected to identify more of those charged, including the coach and the sailor. Each defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty.