26 arrested in a sex offender roundup
Child porn suspects among those targeted in Riverside County, authorities say.
Riverside County investigators arrested 26 people in April on suspicion of possession of child pornography and failure to register with law enforcement as sex offenders, authorities said.
The arrests were made as the Riverside County district attorney’s office’s child exploitation task force conducted 52 sex offender compliance checks in the city of Hemet alone. Five people were arrested on suspicion of parole term violations, and 13 arrests were made on suspicion of failure to register as sex offenders.
The task force also assisted federal investigators in the arrest of one person on suspicion of possession of child pornography, the district attorney’s office announced Wednesday.
During the monthlong operation, investigators with the Riverside County Child Exploitation Team arrested a registered sex offender from San Diego County in an online undercover operation. Authorities said the man traveled to the city of Riverside, thinking he was going to meet with a child for sex.
Investigators arrested six people on suspicion of possessing child pornography after they served search warrants in the cities of Beaumont, Corona, Indio, Lake Elsinore, Moreno Valley and Murrieta. One of those arrested was a registered sex offender, according to the D.A.’s office.
The task force is a partnership among several federal and state law enforcement agencies in Riverside County, including the FBI, the Inland Regional Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking task force, U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Marshals Service.