'PREDATOR' SWEEP NABS 12 SEX OFFENDERS.

Byline: Staff and Wire Reports

A federal task force targeting foreign and domestic sex offenders arrested a dozen people this week in Los Angeles - including a Canadian living in Canoga Park who served six years for kidnapping and sexually assaulting a 17-year-old girl.

Donald Maich, 56, was taken into custody Oct. 3 at his Remmet Street home because his visa had expired. He was being held without bail at the Federal Corrections Institution at Terminal Island, where he is awaiting deportation hearings.

Officials said he was a registered sex offender who had been convicted of rape and kidnapping in Los Angeles in 1980.

He was swept up as part of ``Operation Predator,'' led by agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which was formed to protect children from pornographers, prostitution rings, Internet predators, alien smugglers and other criminals, said Loraine Brown, special agent-in-charge of ICE investigations in Los Angeles.

Many of those taken into custody by ICE are noncitizen, child sex offenders, like Maich, whose crimes qualify them for deportation.

``Our agents will continue to seek out those who victimize our nation's children,'' Brown said. ``Since July, we have made more than 250 arrests in connection with Operation Predator in the Los Angeles area alone. We are committed to using every enforcement tool at our disposal to combat this threat, and the message should be clear: Sexual predators are not welcome here.''

Jose Luis Melchor-Aparicio of La Habra was arrested for allegedly impregnating his daughter, then demanding that she have an abortion, officials said.

An 85-year-old Garden Grove man was arrested at Los Angeles International Airport while boarding a flight to the Philippines, where he allegedly planned to engage in sex with two preteen girls. In the man's luggage, ICE agents discovered pornographic materials and sexual aids.

As part of the Southern California operation, which began in July, agents made arrests in Los Angeles, La Habra, Santa Monica, Canoga Park, Alhambra, Industry and Ontario.

Nationwide, there have been more than 1,000 such arrests, Brown said.