10/16/2026
Thank you to the SLOCO Sheriffs' Department and Online Operation! Operation Keep Praying for these predators to get caught in the web of their own doing.
https://www.facebook.com/the.dan.dow/posts/pfbid0ryxphEPpYCmgRiWLZWCHckCAs3W9WyUbTgpoJLtbkJLtx1koq3no3n4hxvqw13aKl
Jury Convicts Man Who Arranged to Meet a 15-Year-Old Girl for S*x in Sheriff's Online Child Predator Operation.
For the full press release and copies of the booking photo and charging document, visit our website linked in comments below.
District Attorney Dan Dow announces the conviction of Genaro SantanaAvalos (42) for contacting a person he believed was a 15-year-old girl online and traveling to a San Luis Obispo park to meet her for s*x.
District Attorney Dan Dow announced today that a San Luis Obispo County jury has convicted Genaro SantanaAvalos (DOB 07/23/1984) of all four criminal offenses charged. The charges were contacting a minor with intent to commit a s*xual offense (felony), arranging and going to a meeting with a minor for lewd purposes (felony), possession of methamphetamine (misdemeanor), and possession of drug paraphernalia (misdemeanor). The jury began deliberating on the afternoon of October 13 and returned its verdicts at 4:01 p.m. today. Sentencing is scheduled for November 19, 2026.
The evidence at trial showed that in December 2024, detectives with the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff's Office Detective Bureau took part in a multi-agency operation targeting adults who use the internet to seek out minors for s*x. On December 12, 2024, a Sheriff's detective had electronic communication with the defendant on a dating and "hook up" website. That evening, SantanaAvalos used the name "Alex" and provided his phone number.
In the text conversation that followed, SantanaAvalos, then 40 years old, asked the Sheriff’s decoy to "hook up" and proposed getting a hotel room. After he sent two s*xually explicit photographs of himself, the decoy told him she was not 18 and then told him she was 15 years old. SantanaAvalos replied, "If ur gonna cost me trouble maybe I shouldn't go," but continued the conversation. He asked when the decoy's mother would return home from work, said the meeting would be "only going to be for a little while," offered to drop her back at home by 5:00 a.m., and told her he would head out to meet her. The decoy said she lived near a local park in San Luis Obispo, and SantanaAvalos drove from Paso Robles, sending updates on his arrival time and telling her to look for a blue car.
At approximately 9:47 p.m., SantanaAvalos drove a blue car into the arranged meeting location’s parking lot, where detectives stopped and arrested him. Detectives found a condom, methamphetamine, and a methamphetamine pipe on his person. In an interview with detectives, SantanaAvalos first denied talking with a 15-year-old, then claimed someone else had used his phone, and then claimed he had been dropping off a friend at the park; detectives had watched him drive into the lot alone. A forensic examination of his phone confirmed the messages with the decoy, saved directions from Paso Robles to the San Luis Obispo park, and the photographs he sent. Laboratory testing confirmed the substance was methamphetamine.
Dan Dow District Attorney San Luis Obispo County Sheriff's Office
