WAILUKU – Seven men were arrested over the weekend after going online to solicit people they believed were underage minors and taking substantial steps to meet them for sex, police said.

Instead of the 13-year-old girls they were expecting, the men were met and arrested by law enforcement officers, police said.

“The online sexual exploitation of young children and teenagers alike in our community is happening and is a real threat,” Maui Police said in a news release. “The offenders come from all different walks of life and all different backgrounds. The only commonality is the lasting emotional and physical damage that they do to our children.”

The arrests occurred from Friday to Sunday as part of Operation Keiki Shield 7, involving local, state and federal law enforcement.

Three men – Finehafo’ou Hafoka, 26, of Kahului; Abdila Oluwatimilehin, 23, of Kihei; and Jerome Ulep, 34, of Kahului – were arrested Friday. Two others, Edward Hsu, 49, of Kihei, and Ryan Kiefer Fu, 28, of Pinole, Calif., were arrested Saturday. Bruce Mann, 71, of Wailuku and Joshua Irvine, 35, of Wailuku were arrested Sunday.

Bail was set at $150,000 each, with each man charged with first-degree electronic enticement of a child.

Hafoka also was charged with two counts of indecent electronic display to a child.

Ulep, Hsu, Mann and Irvine also were each charged with one count of indecent electronic display to a child.

Police records show Ulep and Hsu posted bail to be released.

The other defendants had their bail amounts maintained when they made initial appearances Monday and Tuesday in Wailuku District Court.

“The issue with Mr. Fu is he’s a resident of California,” said Deputy Public Defender Gustavo Gonzalez, in asking for bail to be reduced to $10,000. “He is currently not working due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He was previously working as an engineer.”

Deputy Prosecutor Elizabeth Nardi said that, after explicit sexual conversation with a law enforcement officer posing as a 13-year-old girl, Fu arranged to meet her at Kihei Safeway in the fruit section.

“He approached the decoy and asked if she was nervous, and he was immediately apprehended by police,” Nardi said. “The biggest issue is he wanted to have sex with a 13-year-old female, and that’s a great concern for public safety.”

Hafoka, who also was communicating with an undercover officer portraying a 13-year-old girl, sent her two photos of his private area, said Deputy Prosecutor Karen Droscoski. She said Hafoka went to meet the girl at Foodland Kahului, where he was apprehended.

After being arrested, Hafoka said he “was aware what he was doing was wrong.”

He also admitted to having sexual contact with a relative who was 9 years old when he was 16, Droscoski said.

Gonzalez asked for bail to be reduced to $12,000 for Hafoka, who works, has been on Maui for more than 10 years and lives with his family.

“There’s the possibility Mr. Hafoka is of a diminished mental capacity, so much so that he is normally taken care of by his family and is being supervised by his family,” Gonzalez said.

Droscoski said Hafoka graduated from Maui High School.

Irvine had been released from jail Thursday when he was placed on probation for first-degree terroristic threatening of an adult corrections officer. Within 48 hours, Irvine was “not only violating his probation but committing a new crime,” Nardi said.

She said Irvine communicated with the officer he thought was a 13-year-old girl Saturday and Sunday, agreeing to meet at Kahului Safeway.

After being arrested, Irvine initially told officers he was communicating with someone he thought was 31 years old, Nardi said. When he was reminded about his text message saying “it’s hard to approach a 13-year-old,” Irvine responded, “There you have it,” Nardi said.

Judge Kirstin Hamman kept bail at $150,000 each for Fu, Hafoka and Irvine on Tuesday.

“The court is concerned about the safety of the community, given the allegations and the nature of the charges,” Hamman said.

Judge Blaine Kobayashi kept bail at $150,000 for Mann.

He had asked to be released on supervision, with his attorney Hayden Aluli saying Mann has lived on Maui for 41 years and is a business owner with a criminal history limited to a DUI in the 1990s.

Deputy Prosecutor J.W. Hupp, arguing for bail to continue, said explicit sexual conversation between Mann and the officer posing as a 13-year-old began Friday and continued Saturday and Sunday.

“The defendant’s plan was to pick this child up in Kihei and transport this child to his residence in Wailuku, where he was to perform a sex act or sex acts,” Hupp said. “Fortunately for the community, this person was a law enforcement officer and the defendant was arrested.”

Oluwatimilehin, whose bail was maintained during his initial court appearance Monday, is charged with second- and third-degree sexual assault of a woman in a pending 2nd Circuit Court case. He had been released after posting a $12,000 bond in that case, court records show.

Police said that through the investigation, a previously unknown child victim of past sexual offenses was identified. Police reported investigating additional criminal offenses as a result of the investigation.

Maui Police Department Detective Matthew Bigoss coordinated the enforcement efforts.

To carry out the operation, police worked with officers and agents from the Department of the Attorney General, Internet Crimes Against Children Taskforce, Honolulu Police Department, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Homeland Security Investigations Honolulu, U.S. Secret Service and FBI.

Operation Keiki Shield is an ongoing operation to identify, locate and arrest offenders who commit internet-facilitated sexual crimes against children and to identify and rescue child victims of sexual exploitation and abuse.

“The Maui Police Department and our law enforcement partners in the ICAC Taskforce are vigorously pursuing these online predators and will continue to do so for the safety of our children,” according to the news release. “In that context we have a message for you: If you are sexually exploiting the children in our communities, we will find you, we will arrest you and we will prosecute you to the fullest extent possible.”

* Lila Fujimoto can be reached at lfujimoto@mauinews.com.