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SALT LAKE CITY — A Utah Transit Authority employee was charged Friday after prosecutors say he tried to entice what he thought was a 12-year-old girl online for sex, according to charging documents.
Andres Amado Alarcon, 43, of Tooele, was arrested Thursday and charged the following day with enticing a minor, a second-degree felony. Court records show bail was set at $50,000 and Salt Lake County Jail records show he was released on bail Friday.
In a statement released Sunday, UTA officials confirmed Alarcon is an employee but did not say what his role with the transit agency was. A promotional video UTA published on YouTube in Feb. 2018 introduced him as the manager of its FrontRunner dispatch center and he was listed as UTA’s rail operations coordinator in a 2015 Deseret News article.
“UTA regards this as a private, personal matter which is under an independent investigation,” the agency’s statement read. “UTA is cooperating as needed with this investigation.”
According to the charging document filed in 3rd District Court, an FBI agent working with the FBI Child Exploitation Task Force conducted an undercover operation on social media applications posing as a 12-year-old girl. The agent was then contacted online by a person using the online profile name “Zenatar” that was determined to be Alarcon, the document stated.
“During the conversation, Alarcon stated that he wanted to have sex with the 12-year-old and he would bring condoms. Alarcon planned to meet and pick up the 12-year-old at her apartment,” the document continued.
He was then arrested by a Salt Lake County District Attorney officer at that location, which was not disclosed.
Court records did not list whether Alarcon had obtained legal representation. He had no previous criminal history in Utah prior to charges that were filed Friday, according to court records.
