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TRENTON – Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal announced today that a Lacey man was sentenced to state prison for five years for attempting to lure a “15-year-old boy” he met on social media to his residence for a sexual encounter.

The “boy” was in reality an undercover police officer participating in “Operation Open House,” a multi-agency undercover operation in 2018 led by the Attorney General’s Office.

 The operation resulted in the arrest of 24 men who allegedly used social media to lure underage girls and boys for sexual activity.

  Dylan Daffron, 29, was sentenced by Superior Court Judge Wendel E. Daniels in Ocean County.  Daffron pleaded guilty on July 15, to second-degree luring/enticing a child.  He will be required to register as a sex offender under Megan’s Law and will be subject to parole supervision for life.

  Deputy Attorney General Thomas Huynh prosecuted Daffron and handled the sentencing for the Division of Criminal Justice Financial and Cyber Crimes Bureau.  

  Daffron was arrested on Sept. 8, 2018 when an undercover officer from the Voorhees Township  Police Department encountered him on social media.  Daffron, who believed the undercover officer was a 15-year-old boy, communicated with the “boy” and ultimately asked him to meet him for sexual activity.  

  During the exchange, Daffron sent sexually explicit images to the undercover officer.  Daffron was later arrested that day when he arrived at the house in Toms River where dozens of officers participating in Operation Open House were waiting to arrest alleged offenders and process any evidence seized.  

  In the past 13 months, the Division of Criminal Justice, the New Jersey State Police, and their law enforcement partners arrested 40 alleged child predators in two major undercover operations, “Operation Open House” in Ocean County and “Operation Home Alone” in Bergen County.

“Through multi-agency operations like Open House and Home Alone, as well as our day-to-day monitoring of social media, we’re working diligently to arrest sexual predators and protect children,” Attorney General Grewal said. 

  “I urge parents to talk to their children about the dangers of social media and the fact that predators use the internet to manipulate children into situations where they can be harmed,” Grewal said.

Director Veronica Allende of the Division of Criminal Justice said, “to understand the importance of these law enforcement efforts, one need only contemplate what would happen if a defendant like Daffron encountered a vulnerable victim on social media instead of an undercover officer.”