Palatine, Illinois’s Gene Melner charged with human trafficking

Gene Melner, 37, of Palatine, Illinois, United States is a truck driver. He is a former resident of Seattle, Washington, USA and Lynnwood, Washington.

Palatine is around 750 miles away from Decatur, DeKalb County, Georgia, USA, which is home to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation. Decatur is around 114 miles away from Columbus, Muscogee County, Georgia, which is home to the Muscogee County Sheriff’s Office.

Operation Lights Out

The Georgia Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force is housed within the Child Exploitation And Computer Crimes Unit (CEACCU) at the GBI. From April 25-27, 2025, the task force, the GBI and the Muscogee County Sheriff’s Office conducted Operation Lights Out, a human trafficking operation involving online sexual predators.

Also involved in the operation were Homeland Security Investigations, the U.S. Secret Service, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Criminal Investigations Division of the U.S. Army. The police departments of Polk County, Georgia and Gwinnett County, Georgia and the respective offices of the sheriffs of Georgia’s Cherokee County, Colquitt County, Forsyth County and Jasper County participated, as well.

A total of 19 men were arrested. One of them is Melner, who was charged with human trafficking.

The 19 suspects are accused of engaging in sexually explicit online conversations with minors and arranging in-person meetings to commit sexual acts. They allegedly traveled with the intent to exploit both boys and girls.

“These predators will travel from near and far to victimize your children,” Muscogee County sheriff Gregory Countryman Sr., 58, of Columbus stated. “We take these crimes against children very seriously. It will be our focus to find these predators so they may be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”

Countryman began his first term as the sheriff on January 1, 2021. He was reelected on November 5, 2024.

Aside from Palatine, Melner has lived in other parts of Illinois including Chicago. In 2004, he graduated from Howe Military Academy in Howe, Indiana, USA.

In 2010, Melner graduated from the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) in Chicago with a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry. Born Yevgeniy A. Tekhneryadov, he turned 37 in May 2024.