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Which law enforcement agency ran the Florida undercover operation that led to 50 arrests?
Executive summary
Federal and state immigration enforcement agencies — primarily U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in partnership with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) — led a 10-day operation in Florida that federal officials described as resulting in about 230 arrests, many identified as convicted sexual offenders; that initiative is reported under names including “Operation Criminal Return” and “Operation Dirtbag” [1] [2]. Separately, multiple Florida sheriff’s offices have run large undercover sting operations this year that produced dozens to hundreds of arrests (for example Polk and Hillsborough counties), but the specific “50 arrests” figure does not appear in the provided reporting about the federal ICE/FDLE sweep (available sources do not mention an operation that led to exactly 50 arrests) [3] [4].
1. Who ran the large Florida operation most stories cite? — Federal-state immigration partners
Mainstream accounts identify ICE — specifically ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) — working in collaboration with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) under a 287(g) task‑force model as the lead partners in the state‑wide, 10‑day enforcement campaign that officials described as arresting more than 230 people, including dozens identified as sex offenders; ICE’s own release and FDLE statements frame it as a federal‑state joint operation [1] [5].
2. What names and numbers officials used — “Operation Criminal Return” / “Operation Dirtbag”
ICE materials and local reporting refer to the initiative as “Operation Criminal Return,” while Department of Homeland Security briefings and some press coverage used the label “Operation Dirtbag.” Officials announced roughly “more than 230” arrests and repeatedly highlighted about 150 people they described as sexual predators or convicted sex offenders; those tallies come from DHS/ICE/FDLE statements and their press events [1] [2] [5].
3. Where the “50 arrests” figure might come from — county stings and separate operations
Florida law enforcement has conducted multiple distinct undercover operations this year that resulted in very different arrest totals: Polk County’s multi‑day undercover “Fool Around and Find Out” operation produced 244 prostitution‑related arrests (and additional human‑trafficking charges), and Hillsborough County’s “Operation Trade Secrets II” resulted in roughly 104 arrests; smaller county operations (for instance Martin County) reported six arrests in an online child‑predator sting [3] [6] [4] [7]. Given that record, a reference to “50 arrests” could reasonably be conflating or misremembering a separate county sting rather than the ICE/FDLE statewide sweep (available sources do not mention an exact 50‑arrest count tied to the ICE/FDLE operation) [3] [4] [7].
4. Who announced and framed the operation publicly — federal and state officials with political context
Announcements and quotes came from ICE/ERO leaders and Florida law‑enforcement executives (FDLE Commissioner Mark Glass, DHS Secretary Kristi Noem in some statements), who framed the operation as removing “the worst of the worst” and emphasized partnership with Governor Ron DeSantis; those public framings were prominent in ICE, DHS, and state press materials [1] [2] [8].
5. Local agency undercover stings produce different problems and numbers — comparisons matter
County sheriff’s offices run undercover stings focused on prostitution, human trafficking, and online child‑predator entrapment; Polk County reported 244 arrests in one undercover human‑trafficking/prostitution sting, Hillsborough announced 104 arrests in another, and Martin County announced six arrests in an online child‑sex sting — all showing that large numbers in Florida enforcement come from a patchwork of county efforts rather than a single statewide undercover operation [3] [4] [7] [9].
6. Areas of dispute and civic reaction — advocacy, legal and political angles
Immigrant‑advocacy groups protested the ICE/FDLE roundup and warned about stigmatization of immigrant communities; ICE/FDLE defended the operation by saying those arrested had final orders of removal or serious criminal histories. That tension — public‑safety framing by enforcement officials vs. civil‑rights and community concerns — is explicit in the coverage [5] [10].
7. Reporting limits and what we do not know from these sources
Available sources do not mention an undercover operation run by a single agency that produced exactly 50 arrests, nor do they attribute a 50‑arrest total to the ICE/FDLE statewide sweep; if you have a specific county, date, or agency in mind, those details would help locate reporting tied to a 50‑arrest figure (available sources do not mention that exact claim) [1] [3] [4].
Bottom line: the large, widely reported Florida operation was led by ICE in partnership with FDLE (branded in various materials as “Operation Criminal Return” or “Operation Dirtbag”) and is credited with about 230 arrests, while numerous separate county undercover stings have produced a range of other totals — but none of the provided sources tie a 50‑arrest result to the federal/state operation [1] [2] [3] [4].