Fresno County Sheriff Margaret Mims announces the arrest of 26-year-old Selma resident Jose Ricardo Carrillo Montes on charges relating to possession of child pornography and “sextortion.”
The investigation began on Sunday, September 14, 2014 when Fresno County Sheriff’s Deputies responded to a report that a 13 year old boy had inappropriate messages from an adult male. The investigation revealed the 13 year old boy had been communicating with what he believed to be a young female via the mobile application “Kik”. Kik is based on a username, not a phone number and allows users to exchange text, photo and videos. After the exchange of information back and forth via Kik, the 13 year old boy learned the subject he was communicating with was actually an unknown adult male. The male then began to threaten the victim and extorted additional information from the 13 year old boy in what is commonly referred to as “Sextortion” via the internet.
A suspect was identified and on the morning of September 19th, 2014, the Central California Internet Crimes Against Children task force, including detectives from the Fresno County Sheriff’s Office and Federal Agents from Homeland Security Investigations, served a search warrant at a residence in the City of Selma. Jose Ricardo Carrillo Montes was contacted at the residence and later arrested on numerous charges relating to the investigation. Montes was transported and booked into the Fresno County Jail.
Parents are encouraged to monitor the internet activity of their children and educate them on the potential dangers lurking on the internet and various social networking sites. Parents and children are reminded never to provide personal information such as name, home address or school information over any of these sites. Oftentimes, the person your child may be communicating with over the internet and social networking sites may in fact not be who they are portraying.
This investigation is part of a continuing effort by the Central California ICAC Task Force to actively locate, identify and arrest those who use the internet to sexually exploit children. Central California ICAC is a partially funded through Federal and State grants and the task force is comprised of 59 law enforcement agencies spread across Kern, Tulare, Kings, Fresno, Madera, Merced, Mariposa, Inyo and San Luis Obispo Counties.
For additional information pertaining to the Central California Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force or internet safety related information, please go to www.centralcaliforniaicac.org or you can find a link to their webpage at www.fresnisheriff.org.
Anyone with information regarding this investigation or for more information regarding Central California ICAC, please call Sergeant Jeff Kertson at (559)600-8144 or by calling Crime Stoppers at (559) 498-STOP (7867).