The Blount County Sheriff’s Office teamed up with Chris Hansen, formerly of To Catch a Predator, to carry out a two-day sting operation targeting child sex predators.

Sheriff Mark Moon said the sting took place Jan. 25 and 26, and also involved the Genesee County Sheriff’s Office Genesee Human Oppression Strike Team from Michigan.

Moon said three people were arrested during the operation. They traveled to a sting house for the purpose of having sex with what they believed was a 15-year-old girl.

The names of those arrested have not yet been released.

Moon said the Blount County sting will be featured in three episodes of Takedown with Chris Hansen on trublu.com. An air date has not been announced.

“This is just the beginning of what we hope will be a major impact on the war on sexual predators,’’ Moon said. “The Blount County Sheriff’s Office takes these crimes very seriously and wants people to know that this will not be tolerated here.”

Genesee County Sheriff Chris Swanson has offered his team and resources to train and coach Blount County deputies on how to after these criminals and how to plan, prep, conduct, and follow up on the investigations.

Moon said child abuse cases in Blount County continue to be on the rise and the majority of those crimes against children are sexual in nature.

“We will not stand for this,’’ he said. “We are now taking the fight to them, the predator, and will come after them with every resource and asset we have.”

“We are tired of having to be so reactive to cases like this where we take a report from a victim then launch an investigation,’’ he said. “If we can stop these crimes from happening to begin with hopefully we can stop a lot of the pain and trauma that so many of our children suffer from.”

“If anyone out there has enough evil in your heart to seek after a child for a sexual encounter don’t come to Blount County,’’ he said.