Kansas man tried to purchase Kentucky child for $500 and meth. He’s going to prison.

A Kansas man was sentenced to five years in prison after allegedly attempting to purchase a Kentucky child online for $500 and drugs., according to the attorney general’s office.

Ernest Merle John Anziana, 49, of Fredonia, Kansas, was charged with five counts of unlawful use of electronic means to induce a minor to engage in sexual or other prohibited activities and one count of promoting human trafficking. He was sentenced Friday.

Attorney General Andy Beshear’s Cyber Crimes Unit began investigating Anziana in early 2018 when it discovered he was attempting to solicit sex from an underage girl in Kentucky, according to a release from Beshear’s office. He allegedly offered to purchase the child for $500 and 7 grams of meth.

Anziana was served with a Franklin Circuit Court indictment warrant Feb. 7, and after being extradited to Kentucky, his bond was set at $500,000, according to Beshear’s office.

When Anziana is released from prison, he is required to register as a sex offender and must complete an approved sex offender treatment program, according to a Beshear news release.

“The details involved in this case are disturbing, yet our office encounters human trafficking cases in every county, city and community across Kentucky,” Beshear stated. “Human trafficking represents the worst form of abuse, most often in children, like we have in this case. Every part of my office is committed to investigating and prosecuting predators seeking to harm our children and families..”

The Office of Child Abuse and Human Trafficking Prevention Beshear created has been involved in 31 human trafficking arrests or citations, Beshear’s office stated.

On the same day Anziana was sentenced, a man from another state was arrested at Lexington’s Blue Grass Airport and charged with similar crimes for traveling 900 miles to engage in what he thought was sex with two children under the age of 12, Beshear’s office said Monday.

Gregory Lee Hruby of Brazoria, Texas, near Houston, was put in the Fayette Detention Center on a $100,000 bail. He’s charged with four counts of using electronic devices to induce a minor in Kentucky to engage in sexual or other prohibited activities, according to Beshear’s office. Hruby was arrested after a lengthly undercover investigation.

This story was originally published October 23, 2018 at 2:00 PM.