Undercover operation leads to arrest of Salt Lake City man for enticing minors online, charges say

OREM, Utah (ABC4) — A Salt Lake City man is behind bars after allegedly engaging in sexual chats with an undercover officer posing as a minor online. Search warrants also revealed he had victimized real minors as well, documents say.

Giancarlo Salvatore Rinna, 38, is charged with 13 counts of enticing a minor, a second-degree felony; one count of sexual exploitation of a minor, a second-degree felony; and two counts of distributing material harmful to a minor, a third-degree felony.

According to court documents, in August 2025, detectives with the Orem Police Department were performing an undercover investigation on Chatib, posing as a 13-year-old who was using a false age to get onto the website.

While on the chat website, a user — who police later identified as Rinna — messaged the account and asked how old the undercover was. They responded 13 years old, to which Rinna allegedly replied, “Oh wow,” and “Would you sit on my lap?”

The user asked to move the conversation to Discord, a different messaging platform. On Discord, Rinna and the undercover detective exchanged photos, the detective using a fake one. During the course of the conversation, Rinna asked to meet with the undercover, whom he believed to be a 13-year-old girl.

Rinna allegedly began asking sexual questions and making inappropriate comments. The detective reminded him of the child’s age, and Rinna asked the 13-year-old to “promise” not to tell anyone.

The two made plans to meet up after the child’s parents were asleep, and Rinna asked to move the conversation to Session, another chatting app. After moving apps, the conversation immediately became more sexual, according to documents.

Throughout the messages, Rinna allegedly asked the 13-year-old for sexual photos and sent an explicit picture of himself. After continuing to make sexual comments and requests of the detective posing as a child, Rinna canceled the plans to meet up that night.

Over the next several days, he continued messaging the account, making plans to meet up on the weekend. Those plans also fell through, but documents say Rinna continued having sexual conversations with the detective.

This back and forth continued for several more months, through the end of October, with Rinna messaging the undercover detective sporadically with inappropriate comments and pictures, but never actually meeting with who he believed to be a 13-year-old girl.

The Utah Statewide Intelligence and Analysis Center reportedly used facial recognition software to identify the user as Rinna using the photos he sent to the undercover detective. Using that information, police requested search warrants.

A search warrant performed on Rinna’s Discord account allegedly revealed that he had been messaging other minors on the platform. He engaged in these conversations with at least four underage girls, and some of them sent photos and videos that qualified as child sexual abuse material.

Using IP addresses, police confirmed that the accounts engaged in the crime belonged to Rinna. The internet company reportedly returned a phone number and address that matched those on Rinna’s Utah driver’s license.

On Nov. 11, 2025, police detained and interviewed Rinna. He declined to answer any questions and was booked into the Utah County Jail, where he is currently being held without bail.

According to charging documents, while in jail, he made a call to a family member where he said, “It was just talking,” “I’m f—ed,” and “I didn’t actually do anything. It was just talk.”