Man arrested after allegedly uploading child porn to Snapchat
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IDAHO FALLS – Court documents reveal new details on how an Idaho Falls man was arrested after allegedly being found with child porn.
Elias Medina, 26, was charged with five felony counts of distribution of child sexually exploitative material and five felony counts of possession of child sexually exploitative material.
On Oct. 31, a detective with the Idaho Falls Police Department was assigned to a case of alleged child porn possession and distribution.
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According to court documents, Snapchat submitted a cyber tip to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children on July 22, 2022.
The cyber tip did not indicate the user’s IP address but showed it was uploaded by someone with a Snapchat account using the name Elias Medina.
Using the phone number associated with the account, Homeland Security Investigations served a subpoena to T-Mobile on Sept. 19, 2022.
Officials learned that Medina was living at a home in Idaho Falls.
While searching through the files uploaded to the Snapchat account, investigators allegedly found photos and videos of children between the ages of 5 and 16 years old engaging in sexual situations.
More videos were found on a deleted account on Kik, a mobile messaging application, with an email registered to the account containing the name Elias Medina.
In the content folder of the Kik account, officials said they found naked photos and videos of children between the ages of 8 and 14 engaging in sexual situations.
The detective conducted several days of surveillance on Medina’s house in Idaho Falls and was granted a search warrant for the home and Medina’s car Wednesday.
Before serving the search warrant, detectives followed Medina as he drove through 1st Street and Ammon Road. A detective stopped Medina when he pulled into apartments at 1st Street and Curlew Drive.
Officers searched the car and seized Medina’s cell phone.
When speaking to officers, Medina reportedly said that he works out of the home they had been watching but that he had been staying in the basement of a residence in Ammon for the last two years.
Officers sent a subpoena to Lumen INC., a telecommunications company, for the IP address registered at the home where Medina said he had been staying.
The company confirmed that it was the same IP address connected to the account that had uploaded videos and images of child pornography to Kik.
Officers were then granted a search warrant for the Ammon address, where they took “several items belonging to Elias” according to court documents.
During an interview with Medina, he confirmed his email and username with detectives and told him he had used Kik, but “to purchase drugs.”
Detectives then asked him about viewing images of child pornography, but Medina would not answer without his attorney present.
Medina was then released back to his car after the search of the Ammon home.
During a search of the cell phone, officers allegedly found more child pornography, which showed children between the ages of 3 and 12 years old being raped and engaging in sexual situations.
Medina was arrested on Dec. 22, and booked into the Bonneville County Jail with a bond of $250,000.
He is expected to appear in court for a preliminary hearing on Jan. 3. If convicted, he could face up to life in prison.
Though Medina has been charged with these crimes, it does not necessarily mean he committed them. Everyone is presumed innocent until they are proven guilty.