Three San Francisco residents have been arrested following a wide-ranging child pornography investigation, police said Monday, with an additional two suspects busted in Sacramento and Los Angeles.
According to a press release sent by the San Francisco Police Department, 38-year-old Gary Waite and 34-year-old Danica Morais were identified as suspects in an online child porn ring by their Internet Crimes Against Children Unit in March of this year.
Police say that the San Francisco duo had "uploaded and distributed child pornography involving children under the age of ten through several online sites." On June 28, police said Monday, they arrested Waite on the first block of Jones Street, which is between McAllister Street and Golden Gate Avenue in the Tenderloin. The next day they arrested Morais on the 100 block of Topeka Avenue in Silver Terrace.
Both were charged with "311.11(a) PC - possession of child pornography, and 311.1(a) PC - distribution of child pornography," police say.
Following Waite's arrest, they realized that another San Francisco resident was allegedly involved: 36-year-old Lorenzo Brown, who police say "was saving the child pornography that was being sent to him." Brown, who "was in custody at the San Mateo County Jail for unrelated charges" (according to the Chron, burglary), was charged with child porn possession on August 3.
Things don't end there, as Morais' arrest led police to two more suspects. According to the SFPD, "she was distributing child pornography to several individuals who were located in Los Angeles and Sacramento." Those individuals, police allege, were 35-year-old Justyn Tomblyn, whose Wilshire Boulevard residence was searched on August 16 by LA's ICAC Task Force. He was subsequently arrested for child porn possession, police say.
Then, in "mid-September," the Sacramento Valley ICAC Task Force searched the residence of 42-year-old Michael Brown, and arrested the Sacramento County resident for child porn possession, as well.
Though the alleged perpetrators in these distribution rings have been caught, the SFPD says their investigation isn't over yet. If you have any knowledge about the suspects, feel you have been one of their victims, or have had any suspicious contact with them, police urge you to contact SFPD's Special Victims Unit at 415- 558-5500.
