Registered sex offender strikes again
Police, acting on a tip, arrest San Jose man for distributing child porn
SAN JOSE >> A registered sex offender with a previous child-porn conviction was arrested after a tip led to the discovery he was trading and distributing sexually explicit images involving toddlers, according to San Jose police.
Nathan Smith, 38, of San Jose was taken into custody Jan. 18 and is being held in the Elmwood men’s jail on $100,000 bail, according to police and jail records.
On Jan. 2, the SJPD Internet Crimes Against Children and Child Exploitation Detail task force got a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that someone in the area was sending and receiving the illicit images on Yahoo Messenger.
“Some of the images involved children under the age of five,” police said in a news release.
An investigation was launched and led to the identification of Smith as a suspect. Detectives later determined that he was a lifetime registered sex offender stemming from a 2010 child-porn conviction, police said.
Smith was arrested at his home by a contingent of San Jose police, Santa Clara County Sheriff’s deputies, and agents with the FBI’s San Jose division.
Anyone with information related to the case can contact Detective Sgt. Brian Spears or Detective Christian Mendoza at 408-537-1397 or leave a tip with Silicon Valley Crime Stoppers at 408-947-STOP or at svcrimestoppers.org. Tipsters may be eligible for a cash reward.