Five arrests in three weeks for child internet exploitation, hard numbers to ignore

Campbell police chief says it’s everywhere and not easy to fight.

The numbers are hard to ignore.

Five men have recently been busted for child internet exploitation charges in the La Crosse area – in just the last three weeks.

The Coulee Region Children’s Internet Protection Task Force has been busy, agrees Campbell police chief Drew Gavrilos. Maybe, though, don’t read too much into the high numbers.

“I don’t know that the recent arrests would necessarily indicate a surge,” Gavrilos said. “I think its prevalent. I think this stuff is going on all the time. It has been.

“What we’re seeing is the perpetrators are becoming very tech savvy and they’re finding was to hide it.”

Gavrilos says there’s a lot of it going on out there. It’s everywhere and not easy to fight.

“It’s labor intensive,” Gavrilos said. “It requires a great deal of time, money and equipment and for small agencies to do that on their own would be very difficult.”

Two of the five arrested were in the the town of Campbell. Along with one each in Onalaska, La Crosse and Holmen. One remains in La Crosse county jail. The rest are out on bond.  

Those five arrested:

• 19-year-old Justin Shaffer of La Crosse
• 22-year-old Stephan Speer of Onalaska
• 35-year-old Paul Doucet of rural Holmen
• 33-year-old Gregory Paglini of Campbell 
• 19-year-old Dakota Thoren of Campbell