PEACH COUNTY, Ga. — A 71-year-old Peach County man is charged with distributing child porn Monday after the GBI executed a search warrant at his home last week.
The GBI's Child Exploitation and Computer Crimes Unit started an investigation after getting a report from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) about 71-year-old Ronald Mike Sanford and child sexual exploitation on the internet, according to a news release.
That's what led the GBI’s CEACC Unit to execute a search warrant at Sanford's house in Byron last Tuesday.
Sanford was arrested, taken to the Peach County Jail, and charged with one count of distribution of child pornography.
The GBI says the investigation was a joint effort between the GBI's CEACC unit, Peach County Sheriff’s Office, and the GBI Region 13 Field Office.
The release says it's part of an ongoing effort by the Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force, which is part of the GBI’s Child Exploitation and Computer Crimes Unit, to identify people involved in child pornography trade and sexually exploiting children online.
This program was started by the U.S. Department of Justice in response to the increasing number of children and teenagers using the internet, the proliferation of child pornography, and the heightened online activity by predators searching for unsupervised contact with underage victims, the release says.
Anyone with information about this case or any other cases of child exploitation call the Georgia Bureau of Investigation Child Exploitation and Computer Crimes Unit at 404-270-8870.