Idaho Falls man was ‘actively trading’ child porn online, police say
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IDAHO FALLS — A 32-year-old Idaho Falls man has been charged with multiple felonies after allegedly possessing hundreds of files of child porn.
Marcos Jimenez has been charged with five felony counts of distribution of child sexually exploitative material and five felony counts of possession of child sexually exploitative material.
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According to an affidavit of probable cause, a detective from the Bonneville County Sheriff’s Office was assigned four cyber tips on Nov. 27. The tips were sent from the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.
One of the tips shows a report from Discord, an instant messaging social platform. There were allegedly five videos of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) uploaded to its server, court documents said.
Some of the videos show children as young as 3 to 4 years old. The other cyber tips turned over from Instagram had multiple explicit images.
Fifty pictures were uploaded to Instagram and were being shared with other users on the messaging platform, documents said. All of the pictures that were uploaded to Instagram were uploaded using the same IP address and an email address that was later connected to Jimenez through the investigation.
Through investigation, the detective found an address in Idaho Falls associated with the user. On Dec. 21, the sheriff’s office executed a search warrant at the home.
Jimenez was brought to the Bonneville County Courthouse for an interview. Detectives questioned him about his social media activity and email addresses. He stated that he used to be on Discord but was banned from there, and “he didn’t know why,” documents said.
He said he normally used the Telegram app, which is an instant messaging service, but uses it for work.
When asked further about CSAM and whether he sent or received images on Telegram, Jimenez acknowledged that he traded images online, “specifically sending images of CSAM in order to receive more images,” court documents said.
He also reportedly told detectives that he viewed sexual cartoon images, usually from Japan. Evidence of this was found on his phone with hundreds of photos, according to court documents.
“I asked Jimenez what illegal content we would find on his cell phone. … Jimenez stated that there would be about 1,000 images and videos of CSAM,” documents said.
The Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force forensics team found more than 725 images and videos of CSAM — about 16 gigabytes — just in a preliminary search of his cell phone.
The detective found conversations in Jimenez’s Telegram account showing where he was “actively trading explicit videos of children engaged in sex acts with other people,” court documents said.
Most recently, on Dec. 17, Jimenez reportedly sent 12 separate videos to another user. The videos show kids being abused by adults or exploited. These children range from 1 to 2 years old to pre-teen, the detective reported.
There are conversations with one user about exchanging approximately 5,000 videos, documents said.
In a deleted folder on Telegram, the detective found over 1,700 other videos of CSAM that Jimenez had received from other users and saved on his account. These videos show toddlers and children up to pubescent teen girls.
Due to the evidence, Jimenez was arrested and booked into the Bonneville County Jail.
Homeland Security, the Bonneville County Sheriff’s Office, Idaho Falls Police Department, Pocatello Police Department, Madison County Sheriff’s Office and the Idaho State Police assisted the ICAC Unit with the arrest.
“It’s a difficult task and it takes a toll on the staff who are so dedicated to the safety of Idaho’s kids,” said Attorney General Raúl Labrador in a news release. “But everyone on our ICAC team is committed to stopping the cycle of exploitation and removing these abusers from our communities.”
Jimenez was given a $250,000 bond and ordered to have no contact with minors, no internet access, and to surrender his passport. If he posts bond, he will be sent to pretrial services.
He is scheduled for a preliminary hearing on Jan. 3 at 1 p.m. at the Bonneville County courthouse.
Though Jimenez has been charged with these crimes, it does not necessarily mean he committed them. Everyone is presumed innocent until they are proven guilty.
Anyone with information regarding the exploitation of children is encouraged to contact local police, the Attorney General’s ICAC Unit at (208) 947-8700, or the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children at (800) 843-5678.