Five men from as far away as Kentucky and Illinois were arrested after traveling a combined total of well over 400 miles to Bartholomew County, Indiana, where they believed they would have sexual contact with minors in Columbus. Instead, they walked into a multi-day undercover sting run by a coalition of federal, state and local law enforcement agencies.
The operation was led by the Indiana Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force and hosted locally by the Bartholomew County Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, according to The Republic News. Investigators used multiple social media platforms to intercept the suspects, who believed they were arranging meetups with minors in Columbus. The sting drew participation from an unusually large roster of agencies, including the Indiana State Police, the Bartholomew County Prosecutor's Office, the Bartholomew County Sheriff's Office, the Columbus Police Department and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Additional support came from the Westfield Police Department, the Indiana Intelligence Fusion Center, the Bloomington Police Department, the Jennings County Sheriff's Office, the Howard County Sheriff's Office, the Clinton County Sheriff's Office and the Jeffersonville Police Department, per the same report. The scale of the response reflects how these investigations increasingly rely on pooled personnel and resources rather than any single department acting alone.
Who Was Arrested and What They Face
David Todd Hahn, 48, of Mt. Washington, Kentucky, was arrested on charges of child solicitation and attempted sexual misconduct with a minor, both Level 4 felonies. Luis Ernesto Nunez Machuca, 37, of Streamwood, Illinois, faces the same two Level 4 felony charges. Matthew Bruce Ciske, 48, of Richmond, Indiana, was also charged with child solicitation and attempted sexual misconduct with a minor.
Andrew Rodger Donat, 59, of Indianapolis, was charged with the same pair of Level 4 felonies. Nathan Todd Jones, 49, of Thorntown, Indiana, was charged with child solicitation, also a Level 4 felony, along with possession of methamphetamine, a Level 6 felony, possession of marijuana, a Class B misdemeanor, and possession of paraphernalia, a Class C misdemeanor. All five men are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in court, the outlet notes.
Under Indiana Code § 35-42-4-6, child solicitation is elevated from a Level 5 felony to a Level 4 felony when a suspect uses a computer network or cellular device to solicit someone believed to be a minor under 14, according to The Criminal Defense Team. A Level 4 felony conviction in Indiana carries a prison sentence of two to 12 years, with an advisory term of six years and fines up to $10,000, per the Law Office of Mark Nicholson. Anyone convicted of child solicitation or attempted sexual misconduct with a minor is also required to register on the Indiana Sex and Violent Offender Registry, often for a minimum of 10 years or up to life, according to Rigney Law LLC.
Officials Point to Agency Collaboration
Bartholomew County Sheriff Chris Lane said law enforcement will continue working with agencies everywhere to capture offenders against children and hold them accountable. Bartholomew County Prosecutor Lindsey Holden said agency collaboration is instrumental in investigations of this kind, per The Republic News. Columbus Police Chief Steve Norman said officials must be proactive in preventing child sex offenders from harming children, and the department has said it invests in investigating, educating and preventing child sex crimes.
The Indiana ICAC task force has described the operation as illustrating its broader commitment to protecting children from online exploitation and solicitation. That framing comes amid a sharp rise in reported cyber tips: the statewide task force received 29,635 CyberTips in 2025, a 38 percent jump over the prior year, and logged nearly 3,000 more in January 2026 alone, according to The Indiana Lawyer. Over the year leading into 2026, the statewide ICAC Task Force added 50 officers, resulting in 499 arrests and the rescue of 126 children, per The Angola Bubble.
Local Task Force Built for This Kind of Case
Bartholomew County laid the institutional groundwork for operations like this one in June 2024, when county commissioners ratified a memorandum of understanding between the Columbus Police Department, the Bartholomew County Sheriff's Department and the Prosecutor's Office to form a local ICAC Joint Task Force, according to county commission records. That agreement allowed local investigators to plug directly into the statewide Indiana State Police ICAC network rather than build parallel capacity from scratch.
The county has handled similar cases before. In December 2024, a 36-year-old Columbus resident was arrested on felony child pornography distribution and possession charges following a six-month ICAC investigation triggered by a National Center for Missing and Exploited Children cyber tip, according to WRBI Radio. In June 2023, state ICAC detectives arrested a 29-year-old Columbus man at his Poshard Drive residence on Level 5 and Level 6 felony child exploitation charges after a 10-month investigation, per WTRE Radio.
This latest sting also arrives just weeks after Hoodline reported that a Columbus woman was sentenced to jail time for a sex crime involving a 14-year-old boy, and follows Hoodline's broader look at how Central Indiana prosecutors and the state ICAC task force are managing a growing caseload of child exploitation cases. Neither of the men arrested in this operation has a scheduled court date confirmed in available reporting, and it remains unclear whether the digital evidence seized during the sting could lead to additional charges.
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