A 33-year-old Knoxville man was arrested Friday following a law enforcement raid tied to an ongoing child exploitation investigation.

On August 28, 2026, the Knoxville Police Department’s Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Unit, backed by the Special Operations Squad, executed a search warrant at a home on Gleason Drive. Investigators recovered evidence at the scene and took Yaac Pekle Mendez into custody.

The operation stemmed from Cybertips provided by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which alerted detectives to the exchange of child sexual abuse material and inappropriate online communications with minors. Through their investigation, detectives identified Mendez as the suspect.

Mendez was booked into the Knox County Detention Facility and faces three counts of sexual exploitation of a minor.

The Knoxville Police Department leads the Tennessee Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, a collaborative network of 80 state, local, and federal agencies dedicated to combating technology-facilitated crimes against children.