2 south Monterey County residents investigated for child pornography, 1 arrested
A 15-year-old King City boy is among two south Monterey County suspects accused of downloading dozens of images and videos of child pornography.
Early Wednesday morning, Greenfield police and officers with the South County Task Force went looking for them, serving search warrants at homes on the 100 block of River Road in King City and the 800 block of Portola Street in Soledad.
“The one in Soledad Victor Valdivia he ended up confessing to doing the downloading of the videos and so we took him into custody and booked into the Monterey County Jail and then the 15-year-old down in King City we collected his devices and referred that case to juvenile probation and district attorney's office for filing,” said Greenfield Det. Sgt. Justin Mattke
Investigators are now looking into whether the two suspects may have sexually molested children or taken inappropriate pictures of them.
“In the Soledad home, we didn't have any children there, but the King City one, there were young children up to teenagers there and that's an avenue we're looking at now trying to make sure they're not victims of any crimes as well,” Mattke said.
Greenfield police were tipped off to the 15-year-old and 31-year-old Victor Valdivia by the Silicon Valley internet crimes against children task force. Investigators say some the children depicted in the images were as young as 3 years old.
“Range from very young age 3, 4, 5 all the way up to maybe teenage ages, it varies. There's demand out there from these people who want to download them and as long as they're doing it, we're going to keep coming after them,” Mattke said.
Police confiscated phones and laptops from the suspects and are currently in the process of determining the full extent of the crimes.
If anyone has any information regarding the investigation, you’re asked to call Greenfield police.