Disney employee arrested in underage sex raid allegedly admitted being addicted to minors

Polk County Sheriff's Office announced Thursday that a week-long undercover operation had resulted in the arrest of 13 men, including Disney employee Kevin Sanders of Winter Garden.

The group of suspects allegedly communicated with and solicited with persons they believed were children online, sending sexually explicit images and/or videos to who they thought were 13, 14, or 15-year-old girls, or 14-year-old boys. 

During the underage sex sting operation, “Operation Cyber Guardian II” detectives posed as children online “to investigate those who prey upon and travel to meet children for unlawful sexual activity” and went on for a week of undercover, according to a statement from the sheriff’s office.  

Of the 13 arrested, eight suspects allegedly showed up at an undercover location in Polk County to meet with and sexually abuse those they believed to be children. 

Disney employee Kevin Sanders has reportedly been under investigation by police for several years, but at other times he would always interrupt the conversation and not make it to the appointment with the undercover cop posing as a minor.

On this occasion, Sanders kept conversing with an undercover cop posing as a 13-year-old minor since August 29, 2022, and explicitly told her the sexual acts he planned to perform on her until finally, police were able to identify them and request a warrant for their arrest. 

Sanders told the "girl" they would "have to be careful" because of her age. 

The Disney employee, who is married and has two young children, allegedly admitted to police that he had been having explicit sex with the minor and that he had been doing it for years because communicating with underage girls was his "addiction."

Sanders told detectives he is employed by Disney as a roving IT support specialist. Prior to that, he was a member of Disney's YES Program (Youth Education Series) which offers accredited educational opportunities for students aged 5-18. 

On several occasions, the suspects also contacted what they believed to be the mothers of the minors, who wanted their children to have their first sexual experience. In all cases, the suspects, without hesitation, accepted the offers of the alleged parents and agreed to meet with the minors, sending them explicit messages of the sexual acts they would engage in. 

“We will continue to conduct proactive operations like this to search out these evil predators before they get to our children. Thanks to the hard work of our detectives and the detectives in our partnering agencies, these 13 predators have been arrested. We are going hold them criminally accountable for their attempts to sexually abuse, groom, and corrupt our children" Sheriff Grady Judd said in a statement.

The Sheriff also advised parents to "get all in your child’s business when it comes to their use of electronic devices that gives them access to online gaming, mobile applications, texting, or the internet."

Police encourage parents to check their children's devices regularly and ensure parental controls are enabled to keep men like these away from their kids.