‘Really horrific stuff:’ Sacramento task force operation leads to 23 child porn arrests

A two-week undercover operation based in Sacramento County led to 37 served search warrants and 23 arrests throughout Northern California, as a regional task force continued a crackdown on child pornography shared online.

Sacramento County Sheriff Jim Cooper said the arrests are just scratching the surface in what is a “rampant” problem as sexual predators continue to trade graphic images and videos of adults — mostly men — sexually abusing children.

“A lot of these folks are repeat offenders,” Cooper said. “The enormity. I mean, we could do this 24/7 and not even make a dent in it. It’s like holding your finger in a dike. There is so much out there.”

Cooper and representatives from several law enforcement agencies throughout the region gathered Thursday for a news conference to announce the results of the undercover operation, which was conducted June 18 though July 1 by the Internet Crimes Against Children task force.

The task force, which is based at the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office, includes investigators from law enforcement agencies throughout the region, serving 30 counties in Northern California from Stanislaus County to the Oregon border.

Most of the cyber tips that led to the 23 arrests came from the National Center For Missing and Exploited Children. The tips originate after the center receives a report from an electronic service provider, indicating there’s an online account suspected of uploading child sexual abuse material onto the internet.

Cyber tips skyrocketed, including during pandemic

The number of cyber tips the task force has received from the national center has skyrocketed from 220 tips in 2009 to 10,564 last year, authorities said. The number of tips has increased has increased in all but one year during period; that was 2016, when the number dropped to 1,564 tips from 1,726 the previous year.

What caused the dramatic spike? Cooper pointed to the COVID-19 pandemic, which kept many children home doing their schoolwork online as public health authorities tried to prevent further spread of the contagious virus.

The number of cyber tips climbed from 2,872 in 2019 to 4,941 in 2020, at the height of the pandemic. The number continued to climb, to 7,126 in 2021.

The Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office has a prosecutor dedicated to solely handling cybercrimes, and part of her job is working closely with the child crimes task force.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Scott Triplett said the cybercrimes prosecutor is currently handling about 80 cases, a jump from 20 cases eight years ago.

“It’s gone up exponentially,” Triplett told reporters Thursday. “It’s a significant problem.”

He said the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors recently approved funding for an additional cybercrimes prosecutor to handle the increased caseload.

The three Sacramento County residents arrested in the operation included a 35-year-old Rancho Cordova man suspected of possessing child porn and using a minor to produce illicit images.

Sheriff’s Office Sgt. Brandon Gayman, one of the supervisors on the task force, said investigators found video of the Rancho Cordova man sexually molesting an 8-year-old child. The suspect had recently accepted a contracted job with one of the U.S. military branches and was expected to leave California before authorities found and arrested him. He’s in custody and ineligible for bail.

Gayman said investigators also arrested a 54-year-old Sacramento man who was found on an online advertisement soliciting sex and fantasies on a dating website. He said cybercrime investigators have frequently found suspects who sexually exploit children on the dating site.

The Sacramento man unknowingly spoke to three undercover investigators believing they were children, directing them to communicate with him on the Kik encrypted online messaging app, Gayman said. The suspect reportedly asked the purported children — actually undercover investigators — to perform sex acts online for him and send him illicit images. He was also arrested, booked into jail and is ineligible for bail.

The child crimes task force has led large operations in recent years. In March, the Sheriff’s Office announced the results of a sting operation that ended with the arrests of 18 Northern California men, including 13 from Sacramento County.

In April 2022, the task force arrested a Sacramento County man suspected of using social media to lure children into performing sex acts online at his direction; children as young as 6 years old. The investigation led to over 80 victimized children throughout the United States; children from California and 25 other states, including Texas, Indiana, Florida and New York.

More arrests outside Sacramento County

The arrests included five men from Stanislaus County, including three from the city of Riverbank.

In Placer County, a 22-year-old Roseville man and 40-year-old Colfax man were arrested. Investigators found several hundred child porn images at the Roseville man’s home and learned the Colfax man had been taking photos of children in addition to secretly filming women in a restroom, Placer County sheriff’s officials said.

Placer County District Attorney Morgan Gire said the task force investigators “lurk in the shadows” of the internet to “restore safety, security, and dignity to the children” in these illicit images and videos.

“And we need to be clear, these aren’t abstract images,” Gire said at the news conference. “These are photos and videos of children being victimized.”

A 40-year-old Nevada City woman was the only female arrested in the operation; she was among three arrested suspects from that city.

The undercover operation led to arrests as far north as Shasta County, including one arrest in Redding and three in the town of Anderson.

There was one arrest in Woodland and another in Lodi, authorities said.

California increased funding for the task force

Cooper said Gov. Gavin Newsom’s recent decision to increase the task force’s budget from $200,000 annually to $1 million has significantly increased the ability to go after sexual predators.

The state money funds the purchase of the latest high-tech equipment to support investigations in the task force’s 30 counties, including a forensics van, forensic computers, data storage equipment, investigative software and mobile classrooms to educate other investigators throughout Northern California.

California has recently awarded a $1.1 million wellness grant to the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office to offer counseling services for investigators, particularly for task force members who spend countless hours viewing images of children being abused. Cooper said the work takes a heavy toll emotionally on the investigators, and that they deserve the help to make sure they’re okay.

“Really horrific stuff. And the public really has no idea about it,” Cooper told reporters. “But there’s some evil people out in this world.”

The sheriff warned parents about sexual predators using social media apps to lure children into producing child porn, and he urged families to find out who their children are communicating with online. Cooper said the predators will make deals with each other, to exchange video of them sexually abusing children.

“I don’t care how smart you think your kid is, your kid is still a kid,” Cooper said. “They can be manipulated by an adult. These guys do things like that.”