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Joseph Zanco, a former Massapequa High School educator, pleaded guilty at the federal courthouse in Central Islip to transportation and possession of child pornography, U.S. Attorney Richard Donoghue announced on Thursday.
In April last year, while working at the high school, Zanco began uploading hundreds of child pornography images to the cloud-based Google Drive storage feature of his Google account.
Following the company’s policies and federal law, the images were flagged by Google, who suspended his account and notified local law enforcement, who launched an investigation.
Federal prosecutors proceeded to obtain search warrants and recovered the child pornography from his Google account, in addition to other images and videos containing child pornography from Zanco’s laptop and cellphone.
When he is sentenced, Zanco, 44, will face a mandatory minimum term of five years and a maximum of 20 years in prison. He will also be subjected to a fine of up to $250,000.
“Zanco now faces years in prison for victimizing children by possessing and transporting images of minors being sexually abused, at the same time he was employed as a teacher and entrusted with the safety and well-being of students,” Donoghue stated. “The protection of innocent children is a priority for this Office and our law enforcement partners. We will continue to make every effort to ensure that those who contribute to the victimization of children are brought to justice.”
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