A Bridgeton man allegedly uploaded multiple videos of child sexual abuse.
Edwin Torres, 38, was arrested Tuesday for possessing and distributing the images, acting U.S. Attorney Rachael A. Honig announced.
Torres, who is also known as “Macho Torres,” was connected to two investigations, according to information in the complaint.
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children created a cyber tipline report around February 2020, that a Dropbox account had uploaded 25 videos of child pornography beginning in April 2019, the affidavit reads.
Those videos included prepubescent female and another female estimated to be about 12 to 14 years old engaged in a sexual act, according to the affidavit.
Then, around May, 4, 2020, a law enforcement officer began an investigation using an unnamed social media application.
Posing as a 44-year-old woman from Wisconsin, the undercover officer entered multiple public chat groups that appeared to be created for individuals interested in sexual abuse material, according to the affidavit.
In a group called #tabotalk, a user going by “jerseu” posted a picture of himself that appeared to be Torres, an FBI agent writes in the affidavit.
During the chat recorded by the undercover officers around May 13, 2020, “jerseu” uploaded a total of three videos to the chat, the affidavit alleges.
The videos, as described in the affidavit, included a woman performing a sexual act on a boy about 10 to 13 years old, a girl about 6 to 9 filming her own private areas, and a woman performing a sex act on a girl about 6 to 9 years old while another girl close in age is lying next to them.
Google records sought around Aug. 31 of this connected Torres to the account used, and showed an IP address assigned to his residence accessed the account as recently as earlier that month, the affidavit states.
A search warrant was executed at his home Sept. 23, when Torres allegedly admitted to agents that he used the application in the past and that the Google account was his.
Agents recovered Torres’ cell phone, and found multiple thumbnail images of child pornography within an application on his phone that accessed his account’s Google Drive, the affidavit said.
Torres appeared Tuesday via videoconference Tuesday in Camden federal court, where he was detained without bail by U.S. Magistrate Judge Ann Marie Donio.
NOTE: The state does not release mugshots of federal defendants.
