On May 1, 2026, Polk County, Florida, Sheriff Grady Judd announced 266 arrests from “Polk Around and Find Out,” a multi-day, multi-agency undercover operation targeting human trafficking, prostitution and child predators. According to the sheriff's office and Fox News, 247 of the arrests were related to prostitution and human trafficking, including suspects accused of soliciting sex, and 19 involved suspects accused of traveling to meet minors for sex. Tampa Bay 28 reported that the operation identified seven possible human trafficking victims. At his news conference, Judd singled out two of those arrested who have ties to Trump's political world.
The first is Craig Long II, 41, a Tampa-area fitness business owner who describes himself on X as “MAGA to the core.” Judd said Long had 125,000 followers on Instagram and 568,000 on TikTok. According to the sheriff's office, as reported by Creative Loafing Tampa, Long contacted an undercover detective posing as a sex worker on April 22 and was charged with one count of soliciting a prostitute; he was not reported to face a trafficking charge. Judd displayed a recent photograph of Long with Trump and Donald Trump Jr. “He's an influencer. He moves in big circles even with the president. This is a photograph of him with the president and his son not long ago,” Judd said, according to The Hill. “Well there you go, you got arrested in a human trafficking sting. Influence that for a while.”
The second is Ryan Yates, 40, of Odessa, Florida. According to SILive, Yates pleaded guilty in 2024 over his role in the January 6 attack on the Capitol, served six months in prison, and was on supervised release when Trump pardoned him. Describing that case at the news conference, Judd said Yates “entered the building illegally” and “pushed against and battered police officers trying to get into the rotunda,” and was sentenced to six months in prison, three months of home detention and two years of supervised release. “He says he's unemployed, and then he got a blanket pardon from President Trump. Well we're not giving him a blanket pardon, are we sir? I didn't think so,” Judd said, according to The Hill. Fox News quoted him: “He got away with it with a federal system. But not here.” The specific charge Yates faces was not reported in the coverage reviewed for this entry.
Yates is one of a growing number of pardoned January 6 defendants arrested again. On his first day back in office, Trump pardoned, commuted the sentences of, or ordered the dismissal of cases against all of the more than 1,500 people charged in the attack. A CREW analysis updated in June 2026 counts at least 40 pardoned January 6 defendants who have been rearrested, charged or sentenced for other crimes since January 6, 2021, at least 12 of them for conduct alleged after their pardons, and lists Yates's arrest in the prostitution sting among them. Andrew Paul Johnson, a Florida handyman Trump pardoned, was sentenced in March 2026 to life in prison for molesting two children, the AP reported. Edward Kelley, a January 6 defendant convicted in November 2024 of plotting to kill FBI agents who investigated him, was sentenced to life in July 2025; Trump pardoned his January 6 offenses, but a federal judge ruled the pardon did not cover the murder plot, NBC News reported.
Correction (October 2, 2026): an earlier version of this entry dated the sting to late April 2026; the sheriff's office announced the 266 arrests on May 1, 2026 (an April 29 news conference covered only the 19 child-predator arrests). It implied Long was caught for trafficking; he was charged with soliciting a prostitute. It said Trump's pardon freed Yates from prison; SILive reports he had served his six-month term and was on supervised release. Judd's description of Yates's January 6 conduct is now attributed to him. The entry also said a January 6 rioter's attempt to use the pardon to escape child-exploitation charges was rejected by a judge and that Judd has held office since 2005; neither could be sourced and both were removed, along with unsourced commentary about Republican messaging discipline. Kelley's murder plot predates the pardons, and the entry no longer presents it as conduct after release.