Authorities in Arkansas say their “sting operation” caught an 18-year-old from central Iowa who allegedly had sex with a 12-year-old.

Eighteen-year-old Adam Webb of Grimes was arrested Friday, accused of driving to Arkansas in mid-April and again last week to have sex with a 12-year-old girl. The sheriff’s office in Franklin County, Arkansas, was notified of the incident in April and discovered the girl met Webb through an online chat room. Investigators started communicating with Webb by text messages. Webb was arrested when he got to the girl’s Arkansas home.

Webb has been charged with rape. He’s being held in an Arkansas jail on a $250,000 bond: Franklin County is in northeast Arkansas, on the edge of the Ozark Mountains, near the state’s second largest city of Fort Smith.

(Additional reporting by Jerry Dietz, KCSI, Red Oak)

Radio Iowa