Multiple tips from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) resulted in a 16-year-old being charged on a juvenile offense report with possession and distribution of child pornography.
According to the sheriff's office, investigators were initially tipped off in September 2023 by NCMEC through a cloud storage provider, who said that a user was storing illicit files in their account.
Detectives initiated an investigation. Soon after, the Charles County Sheriff’s Office received another Cyber tip, which was reported to NCMEC by a social media provider.
This tip outlined an account holder who was uploading child pornographic files to their social media account and was trading and selling child pornographic files using the social media platform, officials said.
Leads in both cyber tips determined that they were linked to the same Charles County home, and the teen was identified as a suspect.
A search and seizure warrant was served at the residence, at which time several electronic devices were recovered, leading to further evidence of child porn offenses.
In late December, the 16-year-old was charged on a juvenile offense report with five counts of possession and 33 counts of distribution of child pornography.
Officials made note that in the cases in which the suspect was charged, the images recovered showed children around the age of 10 years old; however, there is no indication that any of the images recovered in this investigation depict children from our area.
The case remains under investigation as of Wednesday, Jan. 15.
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