Palm Desert Man Suspected Of Arranging Sex Meeting With Minor

Palm Desert CA

21 April, 2021

4:13 PM

Description

PALM DESERT, CA — A Palm Desert man accused of arranging to meet up with a 13-year-old girl over the internet for sexual purposes was in custody Wednesday on $250,000 bail. Marino Aaron Lopez, 30, was arrested Tuesday and booked into the Blythe Jail on suspicion of arranging with a minor for lewd purposes and for committing a felony while on bail. Lopez was arrested about 7 p.m. in the 72-900 block of Highway 111 at the conclusion of an undercover operation orchestrated by the Riverside County Anti-Human Trafficking Task Force. Riverside County sheriff's Sgt. Jose Tijerina said law enforcement personnel posed as a 13-year-old girl on multiple social media platforms during the sting operation. Lopez allegedly "initiated an online conversation with the goal of soliciting a sexual encounter with a 13-year-old minor" and arrived at the location to meet her. Lopez is set to be arraigned at the Larson Justice Center in Indio as soon as Friday, jail records show.