Nearly 500 Images Of Suspected Child Porn Found In Passaic Co. Man's Home: AG

CLIFTON, NJ — Tips to the state Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force resulted in a Clifton man being charged with possessing and distributing child pornography, officials said.

The New Jersey Attorney General said investigators searched the home of 29-year-old Luis A. Angeles-Lazaro and found 498 images that they believe to depict children being sexually abused. Officials accused Angeles-Lazaro of transmitting another two dozen videos of confirmed child pornography.

Authorities arrested him on Wednesday, on charges of second-degree distribution of child sex abuse material (CSAM) and third-degree possession of CSAM. His attorney information was not immediately available.

“These charges announced today are serious allegations – and all too common, as predators take advantage of online platforms to mislead and manipulate their targets,” said Attorney General Matthew Platkin.

The AG's office office said the number of people charged with CSAM-related offense has increased 74 percent between 2020 and 2024. Last year, 404 people were charged with crimes including possession, distribution and manufacturing of CSAM; luring; attempted aggravated sexual assault; and human trafficking, officials said.

"Over the past several years, there has been a marked increase nationally in the number of tips reporting suspected predatory activity online," Platkin's office said.

These tips are investigated by the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force (ICAC), which is led by New Jersey State Police. The state Division of Criminal Justice's Cyber Crimes Bureau and county prosecutor's offices are involved in filing any charges against the defendants.

Platkin and NJ State Police provided the following safety tips to parents and guardians about keeping children safe online:

• Parents and guardians are encouraged to make use of all available resources to learn how to set up appropriate privacy settings in all applications used by the children in their care.
• Location settings for applications that use the camera should be turned off. Otherwise GPS coordinates are stored with every picture taken and children can unwittingly share their location with strangers;
• Adults and children need to be mindful about sharing personal information online. A lot of the time perpetrators can figure out where a child lives or attends school from seemingly harmless photographs shared on social media. For example, a child wearing a sweatshirt from their school or a photo of children taken playing in front of a home with the house number visible in the background will provide a stranger with such information. Consider blurring faces or location clues before posting;
• Creating awareness about the impact certain images can have on a child’s future will help our children make smart choices before they post. And educating children about the coercive tactics used by predators is critical to empowering our youth to seek adult help when being pressured online to send images that make them uncomfortable.
• "Online” friends can misrepresent who they really are. Children should never be allowed to meet anyone offline who they have not met before in real life.
• Additional internet safety tips are available here.