St. Peter is a small city of roughly 12,000 residents, located in south-central Minnesota’s Nicollet County, near Mankato and New Ulm.

In July 2015, a coalition of law enforcement agencies, led by the Nicollet County Sheriff’s Office and including the St. Peter Police Department, launched a two-stage reverse sting in St. Peter and New Ulm. Over a three-day period, 13 sex buyers were arrested after responding to online advertisements and arranging to meet undercover officers at hotels in the two cities. Law enforcement did not disclose details of the operations, but noted that it “targeted males interested in juvenile female prostitutes” and was “funded in part by a Women’s Foundation of Minnesota Girls Are NOT For Sale grant.”

In October 2015, the NCSO-led coalition conducted a second two-stage reverse sting in St. Peter in New Ulm, arresting seven sex buyers in the process. Although the identities of the majority of those arrested were again not released, two offenders’ names and mugshots were publicized in press. One of the men was charged with “felony prostitution charge for hiring or agreeing to hire” what he thought was a minor female for prostitution (but was in fact an undercover officer).

In early December 2015, the identities of three of the seven men arrested in October were released to the public, after they were formally charged in Nicollet County court.