by Jim Kouri - SALT LAKE CITY -- Federal agents arrested 12 sexual predators in the Salt Lake City area last Tuesday, including a Guatemalan national who sexually abused five young female victims ranging in age from three to nine.

SALT LAKE CITY -- Federal agents arrested 12 sexual predators in the Salt Lake City area last Tuesday, including a Guatemalan national who sexually abused five young female victims ranging in age from three to nine.

The aliens taken into custody include legal permanent residents whose past criminal records make them subject to deportation from the United States. Those arrested are nationals of Mexico, the Congo, Germany, Sudan, Croatia, Samoa and Guatemala.

Tuesday's arrests are part of Operation Predator, a comprehensive ICE initiative aimed at those who prey on children, including human traffickers, international sex tourists, Internet pornographers, and foreign national predators whose crimes make them deportable. More than 50 of the 9,500 child sex-offender arrests made by ICE nationwide as part of Operation Predator have occurred in Utah.

"These dangerous pedophiles pose a serious threat to the well-being of our children, our families, and our communities," said Kurt Fitz-Randolph, assistant special agent in charge for the ICE Office of Investigations in Utah. "We are working closely with our local and federal law enforcement partners to identify, arrest, and remove those who prey on and exploit children here in Utah."

The subjects arrested this week were identified by ICE agents, in coordination with local authorities, using information from the Megan's Law and other sexual predator databases. ICE agents conducted extensive immigration and criminal history checks to identify those individuals whose crimes make them subject to removal from the United States.