Fourteen men from South Jersey have been arrested in connection to a child porn sting.
The arrests are a result of “Operation Predator Alert,” which targets offenders in New Jersey who use a file sharing network to distribute child pornography such as child rape videos. Under the operation, 28 people have been charged and arrested including the fourteen from this sting. One of the defendants in this case, Michael Van Culin, allegedly forced a 16 years old Canadian girl to strip on camera, threatening to disclose personal information about her to her friends and family if she refused. Van Culin allegedly got this information by running various programs that can hack another person’s email among other things. The investigation of Van Culin’s computer is still continuing and investigators ask anyone with information that might help the case to please contact them immediately.
All of the defendant’s is this case have been charged under New Jersey’s child pornography statute with at least with possession of child pornography while some have also been charged with distribution of child pornography. The statute mandates a minimum 5 years New Jersey State Prison sentence to anyone who distributes 25 or more computer files of child pornography and a mandatory 3 to 5 years for anyone found with 100 or more files of child pornography on his computer.
For more information on this case, please access the nj.com article entitled “Salem, Gloucester county men among 14 charged in child porn sting.”
