A Department of Homeland Security employee was arrested last week for allegedly trying to solicit sex from someone he believed was a 17-year-old girl.
Alexander Steven Back, 41, was among 16 men arrested as part of a sex trafficking operation in Minnesota called “Operation Creep,” Bloomington Police Chief Booker Hodges announced at a press conference Tuesday, according to Fox 9 Minneapolis-St. Paul.
Back allegedly had been communicating with a police decoy disguised as an underage girl, and was arrested upon his arrival at a hotel where he was expecting to meet the teen.
“When he was arrested, he said, ‘I’m ICE, boys,’” Hodges told reporters, adding that Back was “recently married.”
Back has been a civilian auditor for DHS and Immigration and Customs Enforcement for three years.
“Alexander Back was hired under the Biden administration in 2022 and worked as an I-9 auditor. Back was not and has never been a law enforcement officer,” an ICE spokesperson told the Daily Beast. “Following his arrest, ICE immediately placed Alexander Back on administrative leave. ICE is working with local authorities as well as conducting its own investigation via the agency’s Office of Professional Responsibility.”
Back has been charged with the prostitution-related felony of hiring or agreeing to hire a minor he believed was under 18, Hennepin County jail records show.
According to the criminal complaint obtained by People, after Back responded to a prostitution ad, an undercover officer texted him, “U ok if I’m a lil younger than my ad says… just wanna be honest.”
Back replied, “Sure,” according to the complaint.
“K cause I am 17 and one guy got hella mad at me,” the decoy answered. When Back asked if the person was “with the cops,” the officer said they were not, and then provided an address to meet.
After being booked last Thursday, Back posted a $75,000 bond on Saturday and was released.
Back first appeared in court on Monday. He did not enter a plea, a Hennepin County court spokesperson told People. His next court date is Dec. 17.
Back did not immediately respond to a call and email from NBC News on Wednesday.
Operation Creep was designed to combat a “sophisticated” sex trafficking network, Hodges told reporters.
“If you want to purchase sex from a trafficked person, you would call a number or go on the website. That website would get answered by a person in a different country. That person in a different country would call the handler here and arrange for the meeting with the sex worker,” Hodges explained. “This stuff goes international, across the country, and that makes the operations that much more sophisticated.”
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