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Working from a tip, members of Giardina's Internet Crime Against Children Task Force discovered that Edward W. Herbst Jr. of Bloomingdale had uploaded sexual images of youngsters between four and six years old and was looking for more, the sheriff said.
They arrested him on Thursday, April 18, while seizing various electronic devices from his home, Giardina said.
A single flash drive seized by investigators bore more than 1,500 images of "nude children ranging in age from approximately four years old to 12 years old engaged in sexual acts," the sheriff said.
The detectives also discovered an unregistered pistol with two 17-round magazines and a bolt-action rifle, he said.
Herbst -- who worked as a supervisor for a manufacturing company in Riverdale before retiring in 2018 -- was charged with possession of the child pornography, as well as of the illegal handgun, rifle and large-capacity magazines.
The investigation is far from over, however.
"Detectives will continue working on retrieving information from other computer devices belonging to him," the sheriff said.
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