Late last month, the Union County Sheriff’s Office, United States Marshals Service
(Western District), and the NC Department of Public Safety conducted a large-scale sex
offender compliance operation in the Union County area titled “Operation Simon Says”.
The purpose of this operation was to ensure that convicted sex offenders in Union County
were fully in compliance with their registration, residential, and personal restrictions
according to current NC general statutes.

During the operation, a total of five teams consisting of personnel from each of the agencies
listed above conducted compliance checks on approximately 75 convicted sex offenders.
Out of the 75 offenders who were checked, 53 were found to be in full compliance with
the current NC statutes pertaining to sex offender registration. A total of 10 offenders were
found to be non-compliant and UCSO detectives have obtained warrants for and/or arrested
these individuals. During the operation, one convicted sex offender, Julio A. Rojas, who
was deported upon his original criminal conviction, was arrested by Immigrations and
Customs Enforcement (ICE) and will be criminally charged at the federal level due to his
failure to register after illegally re-entering the United States several months ago. The
operation also yielded additional criminal charges for registered sex offenders due to
narcotics and weapons violations which were discovered during the compliance checks.
UCSO detectives have also opened another series of criminal investigations involving 10
additional offenders which may lead to criminal arrests in the near future.

Sheriff Eddie Cathey adds “The Union County Sheriff’s Office considers the maintenance
and supervision of the sex offender registry a vital task in the mission to keep Union County
a safe place for our local families to live and work. Our deputies and detectives are out in
our communities each and every day ensuring that convicted sex offenders are abiding by
current NC laws. I want to thank the U.S. Marshals, NCDPS, and ICE for their assistance
in this operation which we consider to be a significant success”. The photographs below
highlight a few of the teams during their compliance checks which took place at local
homes, hotels, and wooded areas around Union County. If anyone has information
pertaining to a sex offender violation in our area, please call 911, the UCSO at (704)283-
3789, or Union County Crime Stoppers at (704)283-5600. Please keep in mind that it is a
Class H felony for anyone to withhold information concerning an offender’s noncompliance from law enforcement. It is also a crime to harbor, conceal, or provide false information concerning a non-compliant sex offender to law enforcement. For more information on the sex offender registry, please visit the NCSBI’s website at NCSBI - Sex Offender Registry

Point of contact for this press release is Lt. James Maye, (704)506-6843