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© AP Photo/Alex Brandon
A top cybersecurity official for the Israeli government was arrested in Nevada during an undercover operation targeting child sex predators.

Tom Alexandrovich was apprehended and faced felony charges of "Luring a Child with Computer for Sex Act," according to the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, which assisted in conducting the operation from nearby Henderson, Nevada.

"A multi-agency operation targeting child sex predators led to the arrest of eight individuals over the last two weeks," the department said in a release published on Friday. The release lists the names of 38-year-old Tom Artiom Alexandrovich and seven others.

Sometime after the arrest became public, Alexandrovich's LinkedIn profile was deleted. According to a screenshot posted online, his LinkedIn said he is the Executive Director of the Israel Cyber Directorate, which is a government agency that operates under the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Alexandrovich was in Las Vegas to attend this year's Black Hat Briefings, an annual gathering of cybersecurity professionals. He posted a photo of himself at the conference on his LinkedIn before the account was deleted.

Ynet, an Israeli news outlet, confirmed that "an employee of the Israel National Cyber Directorate" was "briefly detained for questioning." The publication did not name Alexandrovich and omitted the fact that he was arrested.

Netanyahu's office issued a statement and denied that the employee in question was arrested at all.

"A state employee who traveled to the U.S. for professional matters was questioned by American authorities during his stay," the prime minister's office said. "The employee, who does not hold a diplomatic visa, was not arrested and returned to Israel as scheduled."