MIT researcher busted in undercover sex sting, reports say

(CBS) CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - A researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology was reportedly arrested for allegedly trying to arrange a meeting to have sex with a woman and her two daughters - including one he believed was 12 years old.

Fox News reports 30-year-old Yaron Segal contacted the woman, who was in reality an undercover federal agent, in an Internet chat room.

Segal, an Israeli citizen, was arrested at an airport in Colorado after he allegedly flew there to meet the woman and her daughters.

Segal was busted by agents with the Department of Homeland Security and charged with felonies, including "traveling with intent to engage in a sexual act with a person under 12," according to The Smoking Gun.

The Smoking Gun also reported that Segal first caught the attention of authorities in February when the female undercover agent found him in online chat rooms with titles such as "childslavesex" and "ChildRapeTortureBrutality."

According to a federal complaint, Segal made clear he wanted to have sex with the woman and two daughters he believed she had. "A majority of the chats were very sexually explicit," the agent reported.

Segal began working at MIT last year after completing his doctorate at Yale University's applied physics department.

Segal is in federal custody, and prosecutors are seeking his pre-trial detention, according to a U.S. District Court filing.