there are two separate sugyas.
one is the din of a get needs to be medaas habaal and therefore a get meuseh (forced ) is pasul, but there are some cases where b'd may force and because its halachacly mutar its considered as if he did it willingly. now cases where its mutar is almost impossible to know with certainty being that you will find casses like bi-polar husband or a wife that fears that the husband may kill her and still b'd cannot force a get and if they do its nullified, on the other hand cases where the husband is out if town to often you may force , point being that its not clear as to what level or type of case can be forced and evan when its excactly compared to the case that would be discussed by the rishonim, one can say that todays its different and in that time and place it was muttar, being that this is so you will find casses like when a husband is unbearably beating and publicly degrading his wife that some rishonim say you can force a get and some argue and and lehalacha it would be brought that due to the fact that its a shailah of aishes ish and mamzarus we should not rely on the rishonim that are mattir, therefore the standard approach today by all reliable poskim is to almost never coerce a get.
aside from "when" b'd may force a get there is a different sugya as to "what" is considered force, and therefore although there hasnt been too many cases where the husband was actually abducted and beaten to give a get the are hundreds of stories where husbands have been threaten and bullied into giving a get, now many of these actions were done without b'd knowledge or agreement , now since certain threats and bullying are considered force, there are many people who have gitten that are pasul.
as per the discussion to what happened during the sting according to the report no husband was ever present, the halacha is b'd needs to be mekabel aidus in front of the baal if not its worthless, and they never did that being that they never met with the husband, they were no backround checks to validate the wife side of the story they never evan researched if there was a kedushin this shows that these guys acted without the heter of the gemara, and therefore the children would be pesulim
as fas as punishment goes that is not our responsibility there is no oinesh that a (proper) bais din would give to a person who assist in causing mamzairim, this is gods department. therefore i dont get excited that they are sentenced to imprisonment, although i am happy that this operation was shut down and hope that if there are others doing similar actions they will now be concerned about going to jail and stop