TRENTON –Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal announced that an IT professional from Morris County who possessed over 138,000 videos and images of suspected explicit images of children on his computer equipment was sentenced to prison today for distributing explicit images of children on the internet. He was arrested last year in “Operation Safety Net,” multi-agency explicit photos of children sweep led by the New Jersey Regional Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force.
William G. Camargo, 49, of Long Hill Township, N.J., was sentenced today to five years in state prison, including two years of parole ineligibility, by Superior Court Judge Stephen J. Taylor in Morris County. He pleaded guilty on June 11 to second-degree distribution of explicit images of children. Camargo will be required to register as a sex offender under Megan’s Law and will be subject to parole supervision for life. In pleading guilty, he admitted that he knowingly distributed files depicting the sexual exploitation or abuse of a child on the internet.
Deputy Attorney General Thomas Huynh prosecuted Camargo and handled the sentencing for the Division of Criminal Justice Financial & Computer Crimes Bureau.
“The 138,000 files of child pornography found on this defendant’s computer represent thousands of children who were tortured and sexually exploited to supply the demand for these vile materials, and who are perpetually re-victimized by the offenders who distribute their images on the internet,” said Attorney General Grewal. “We are committed to protecting children by vigorously investigating and prosecuting these criminals.”
“We will continue to patrol the internet and conduct multi-agency investigations to arrest and prosecute offenders like Camargo who explicit images of children,” said Director Veronica Allende of the Division of Criminal Justice. “We are determined to seek justice for the children who are victimized to create these repugnant materials and who are endlessly re-victimized on the internet.”
“It is a sad fact that each year countless children around the world fall prey to sexual predators, their innocence forever stolen and exploited through these disturbing digital collections,” said Brian Michael, Special Agent in Charge for U.S. Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), Newark. “The expert investigative skills that HSI brings to the forefront, in collaboration with our partner agencies, helped take this individual off the street and bring him to much-deserved justice.”
Camargo was among 79 child predators and explicit images of children arrested in “Operation Safety Net,” a nine-month, multi-agency child protection operation that concluded in November 2017. The operation was conducted by the New Jersey Regional Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force, which is led by the New Jersey State Police and includes the New Jersey Division of Criminal Justice, U.S. Homeland Security Investigations, all 21 County Prosecutors’ Offices, and many other state, county and local law enforcement agencies. Ten alleged “hands-on” offenders were arrested in Operation Safety Net, including eight New Jersey men and two men in California and Indiana who allegedly tried to have children transported interstate so they could have sex with them.
Camargo was arrested on Sept. 12, 2017, when detectives and special agents from the Division of Criminal Justice and HSI conducting Operation Safety Net executed a search warrant at his residence. A detective of the Division of Criminal Justice previously had downloaded nearly 50 files of child pornography from a shared folder at an IP address traced to Camargo. During the search, detectives seized computer equipment belonging to Camargo, which a preview revealed contained numerous files of explicit images of children. A later forensic examination of Camargo’s devices revealed over 138,000 files of suspected explicit images of children. The devices contain over 1.3 million additional graphic and video files. Those files have not yet been examined, so it is not known how many constitute explicit images of children.
Attorney General Grewal and Director Allende urged anyone who has information about the distribution of explicit images of children on the internet – or who suspects improper contact by persons communicating with children via the internet or possible exploitation or sexual abuse of children – to contact the New Jersey Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force Tipline at 888-648-6007.