A man from Miami was arrested after an 18-month investigation into the sharing of child pornography. Police say the man was also messaging girls on social media.
Miami Police said that 39-year-old Junior Del Villar Hernandez was arrested on Wednesday on 15 counts of having materials for sexual performance by a kid. Police said the investigation started in September 2022 when 15 videos of sexual abuse of children were sent to a Gmail account.
Police said the tapes were “extremely disturbing” because they showed sexual acts being done on kids as young as 2.
Police said that during the investigation, detectives “chased many misleading leads” before they were able to figure out that Hernandez was the suspect.
Officials said that investigators also found out that he had been messaging girls young on social media. Police said they searched Hernandez’s phone and found thousands of pictures of child porn on it.
“The 15 images we sent out in the press release at first were just a small cache.” “New methods of investigation have shown that there are more than 8,000 pictures on his cell phone alone,” said Manuel Morales, chief of police in Miami.
Hernandez was caught before he was even put into jail.
Internet Crimes Against Children officers from the Special Victims Unit of the Miami Police Department worked on the case.
“It’s not enough to just share all the pictures. Morales said, “We know that it leads to worse, darker, and more illegal things.” “This particular person, this pedophile, has been wanted since 2022 for this reason.” They ran into a lot of problems, but they were determined to catch this guy, and nothing was going to stop them.
Hernandez paid a shop in Edgewater to work as a barber. His friends in Miami, where he lives, didn’t seem shocked by the claims.
“It was crazy because I was talking about him earlier because I have a coworker that lives there as well, he says he’s creepy,” a woman said.
According to NBCMiami they are still looking for people who might have been hurt.
“The Miami Police Department takes any crime against infants/children seriously and will work tirelessly to identify and bring to justice those who engage in such acts against the innocent and helpless children,” a news release said. “Therefore, if you believe you were a victim targeted by Hernandez, we urge you to come forward.”
Call the Special Victims Unit of the Miami Police Department at 305-603-6300 if you know anything.