To beat the highly technological image-sharing network favored by child pornographers, investigators followed digital “fingerprints” on those shared pictures and videos, New Jersey law enforcement officials said Tuesday in detailing a three-month investigation that ended with charges against 27 people. In North Jersey, police arrested and charged Joshua Kane, 31, of Wayne, on April 9, and Andrew Rodriguez, 27, of Park Ridge, on April 11. Jose A. Velasquez, 20, of Clifton was arrested on April 12, followed by Joseph Marella, 42, of Passaic. Two men from Morris County were arrested. One is Charles E. Jones, 50, who officials said was employed as a superintendent of public works in Morristown.
In all, 26 men and one woman face charges of possessing pornographic images of children, following arrests across 14 counties on six days in March and April. The first arrested was Cesar Salgado-Maya, 23, of Camden County, who was picked up ahead of the others on March 1, when detectives learned that he lived above a child day-care center in Audubon. Bernard Cahill, 53, of Folsom was charged also with sexual assault and manufacturing pornography. Police allege that Cahill took photos while he sexually assaulted a girl.
What the defendants have in common, investigators say, is how they shared their images — through “peer-to-peer” networks more typically used for sharing music and movies electronically. But more than 100 state troopers, agents and officers led by the state police’s digital technology investigations unit were scouring those networks, posing undercover as users, and eventually they seized folders of images and videos in the three-month sweep. “People think that because they view their images in the privacy of their homes that we’re not watching them,” Attorney General Jeffrey Chiesa said on Tuesday. “We are.”
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