(Screenshot from Port Orange Police Department’s Facebook)
A member of Orlando’s LGBTQ+ community was one of 16 individuals arrested as part of an undercover sting operation conducted during Bike Week in Daytona Beach, Florida.
Joseph De Lustro, 43, was arrested by the Port Orange Police Department on March 9 and charged with obscene communication with a minor/traveling to meet after using a computer to lure a child and obscene communication/use of a computer to solicit/lure a child, according to a Facebook post made by the Port Orange Police Department.
De Lustro graduated from the University of Tulsa in 2009 and has since been an active member of Central Florida’s LGBTQ+ community, working for Walt Disney World for roughly seven years until early 2014, according to De Lustro’s LinkedIn profile. De Lustro was also involved with the Orlando Ballet for a year and later sold tickets for Florida Citrus Sports and the Florida Theatrical Association.
De Lustro was released on $25,000 surety bond after spending two days in custody according to the Volusia County Clerk of Circuit Court.
The Port Orange Police Department completed the sting operation under the name “Full Throttle” to hunt child predators seeking to engage in sexual acts with minors. Investigators posed as young children online to interact with individuals whom authorities suspected to be child predators. Once the suspect took the bait, they traveled to meet what they believe to be a child but are met with police instead. Videos of each arrest were published to the Port Orange Police Department’s Facebook page.
Over the span of Bike Week, which ran Feb. 28-March 9, the operation took into custody 16 accused child predators which were all booked with the same charges: obscene communication with a minor/traveling to meet after using a computer to lure a child and obscene communication/use of a computer to solicit/lure a child. One of the 16 taken into custody was Jeffery Summers, an employee at Horizon Elementary School, according to the online report on Facebook by the POPD.
Operation Full Throttle used the help of the Southwest Volusia Regional SWAT team as well as numerous other law enforcement agencies including the Department of Homeland Security, Lake City Police Department, City of South Daytona Police Department, Orlando Police Department and St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office.
De Lustro’s arraignment is scheduled at the Volusia County Court House on April 1 at 1:30 p.m. where the court will repeat his charges and rights while he enters a plea.
