Glendale Man, 28, Held on $100K Bond After Grand Avenue Sting Nabs Him

A 28-year-old Glendale man is facing a felony child sex trafficking charge after investigators say he arranged to meet an undercover decoy he believed was a 14-year-old girl, then showed up near the Grand Avenue corridor where officers were waiting. Wai Yuen Leung was arrested on the afternoon of August 22, 2026, capping a two-day undercover operation that began the day before.

According to court documents cited by FOX 10 Phoenix, Leung first contacted an undercover officer by text message on August 21 after finding an ad on what Avondale police described as a known website used for advertisements soliciting sexual encounters. During an on-scene interview after his arrest, Leung reportedly told investigators he found the ad on an escort site and said he knew the person he believed he was talking to was 14 years old.

The decoy told Leung she was 14, and he responded that he was fine with that, according to the court documents outlined by the station. He then asked the decoy how much a 30-minute “car date” would cost and asked her to engage in sexual encounters for money, the documents state.

A Two-Day Exchange That Ended Near Sun City's Gateway

Leung and the decoy did not end up conducting a video call, though he had requested one, per the account reviewed by FOX 10 Phoenix. Instead, he continued messaging the decoy to arrange a meeting for the following day, and on August 22 he reached back out to set plans to meet.

Police arrested Leung that afternoon near the intersection of Grand Avenue and 107th Avenue. That stretch of U.S. Route 60 marks the historic gateway into Sun City, the unincorporated retirement community bordering Glendale and Peoria, according to History Adventuring.

Bond, Monitoring, and What Comes Next in Court

A judge set a $100,000 secured appearance bond for Leung, who will be subject to electronic monitoring if he posts it. He is accused of one felony count of child sex trafficking following the undercover operation, court documents state.

A preliminary hearing is scheduled for August 31 in Arizona, though that hearing could be vacated if prosecutors instead pursue a direct grand jury indictment before the date arrives, a step allowed under Maricopa County Superior Court procedures described by the Maricopa County Attorney's Office. The charge against Leung remains an allegation at this stage of the case.

Why Arizona Law Treats This Charge So Harshly

Under Arizona law, decoy stings like this one are not undercut by the fact that no real child was ever contacted. Arizona statutes explicitly state that a suspect's belief the person was underage is enough to satisfy the intent requirement, even when the alleged victim is an undercover officer, according to the Grand Canyon Law Group.

The stakes for a conviction are severe. Arizona voters approved Proposition 313 in November 2024 with 64.5% support, and the measure mandates a sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole for anyone convicted of a Class 2 felony under A.R.S. § 13-3212, according to reporting at the time from NPR. Because the alleged target in this case was described to Leung as 14 years old, the offense would also fall under Arizona's Dangerous Crimes Against Children framework, which the Salwin Law Group notes bars probation or suspended sentencing for cases involving targets under 15. A conviction under that statute additionally carries lifelong registration on Arizona's Sex Offender Registry, per the same firm's analysis.

Part of a Wider West Valley Enforcement Push

Avondale police's operation fits into a larger pattern of coordinated online child exploitation stings across Maricopa County. Investigations like this one are typically coordinated through the Arizona Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, a multi-agency network led by the Phoenix Police Department with more than 60 partner agencies statewide. Avondale also operates the Southwest Family Advocacy Center alongside police departments in Goodyear and Buckeye, pooling detectives and protective-services workers for these cases across the West Valley.

The scale of these efforts has grown. A 2025 statewide crackdown dubbed Operation Safe Online Summer led to 132 investigations, 243 executed search warrants, and more than 70 arrests across Arizona, according to the City of Phoenix. Nationally, agencies participating in the federal Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force program conducted nearly 347,000 investigations in 2025 and made more than 17,000 arrests, per data from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.

Leung's arrest also follows a string of recent Maricopa County cases involving undercover decoy operations and online trafficking allegations, including an Avondale man held on similar bond earlier this month.