Santos Carranza, 47, of Fort Washington, was arrested Wednesday afternoon, Dec. 11, at a shopping center in Beltsville, authorities announced, following an investigation into alleged sexual solicitation.
Maryland State Police say Carranza believed he was meeting a teenage boy he had been chatting with through a smartphone app. Instead, the "teen" was an undercover officer.
The investigation began when Carranza allegedly engaged in inappropriate text chats with an officer posing as a 15-year-old boy.
Maryland State Police, with assistance from Prince George’s County Police and Homeland Security, arrested Carranza at the scene when he arrived to meet the "minor."
Carranza is charged with sexual solicitation of a minor and second-degree attempted rape. He was transported to the Prince George’s County Department of Corrections and is being held without bond, police said.
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