Sting nets arrest

EAST BRUNSWICK — Township police officers assisted law enforcement officials from two counties and the FBI in arresting a man accused of arranging to have sexual relations with a minor.

Nicholas V. Yaniro, 54, of Hicksville, N.Y, has been charged with traveling interstate for the purpose of having sex with a minor on July 25. According to East Brunswick police, Yaniro was planning on meeting a 13-year-old girl, played by an undercover officer, at a Route 18 location and then to take her to a local motel.

Police said an investigation began six months ago when Yaniro allegedly initiated contact with the undercover police officer in an Internet chat room.

Yaniro allegedly made arrangements to meet the "girl" in East Brunswick, and police officers from the township, the Middlesex County and Bergen County Prosecutors’ offices and the FBI were thus able to arrest him upon his he arrival at 1 p.m. July 25 at the unnamed location.

Yaniro was lodged in the Somerset County Jail pending an appearance in federal court in Newark.