INDIAN RIVER COUNTY, Fla — Indian River County Sheriff Eric Flowers called the investigation Operation Cyberstorm. Of the nine arrested, or soon to be arrested, the sheriff found two cases particularly disturbing.
At a news conference on Thursday, the sheriff noted the alleged offenders are getting younger.
There was a grandfather among those charged and a middle-aged man from Chile, who left the country before his arrest.
However, four of those arrested are in their 20s, allegedly possessing pictures of kids as young as four.
Flowers noted one of those arrested, and another who was apprehended and soon to be charged, are students in local high schools.
We're not showing their mugshots because they are minors.
"Two in one week," Flowers emphasized, saying how shocking it is that 16-year-olds are sending and receiving pornographic images of kids as young as four. "Two high school kids who should be starting school next Monday, who should be heading off to high school now they're in jail over child pornography for young kids. That's really disturbing."
Flowers said parents have always needed to be vigilant, in the past to keep their kids from becoming victims.
Now he said some parents need to be sure their kids aren't perpetrators.
