NBC6’s Olivia Jaquith takes us through how a Miami Police specialty unit focused on internet crimes against children catches criminals, starting from tips and ending with an arrest.
Internet crimes against children have reportedly tripled in recent years, according to detectives with a specialty unit with the Miami Police Department.
Officers in the unit sat down with NBC6 in January for an exclusive, behind-the-scenes look at the work they do to turn a tip into an arrest. Then, this week, NBC6 was on scene when SWAT served a warrant to a suspect accused of possessing child sexual abuse material.
"Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, all, by federal law, have to report any suspected child sexual abuse material, which we call CSAM," one detective told NBC6. "That goes through NCMEC, which is the National Center for Missing [and Exploited] Children."
The officers working within the unit did not want to have their names released or their faces shown on camera because of the nature of their investigations, which often require undercover work.
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With information from social media platforms and NCMEC, the detectives said that they are then able to narrow down the location of the suspected child sexual abuse material to a certain region.
"We basically investigate it off of IP addresses and we reverse locate, and our investigation continues, basically, from there," one of the detectives said. "That involves some of what we're going to be doing today: surveillance."
NBC6 was with Miami detectives as they surveilled the apartment of one suspect in particular, believed to be connected to child sexual abuse material related to a young girl.
"This person, we've already identified who he is. So, basically, what we're doing is where we've placed him in the house before, once we identified him as the perpetrator," the sergeant said. "Now, what we're doing, we're just placing him in the house prior to executing the warrant. We want to make sure that he's here."
Authorities said they had previously surveilled the residence in question to determine who else lived there, as is standard in their investigations.
"NCMEC does a good job of letting us know if the content they're sending us, if the child has already been identified. They have their own people that do that," one of the detectives said. "If we receive a cyber tip where a child is not identified, then it's kind of handled a little bit on a different priority scale. So, most of the children that we view, when we make an arrest, they're already known, meaning that they're not missing. We know that they're not actively being sexually abused."
On Wednesday, the detectives in the Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) unit were accompanied by Miami Police officers, SWAT and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) officers to serve a warrant for a different case in Little Havana.
"It's safer. They're more trained. They have a whole team," one detective told NBC6. "When you serve these warrants, or going into a house where [...] they've already made their mind up that if police come to their door one day, that they're going to fight back or they're going to try to get away and run."
Prior to executing the warrant Wednesday, ICAC officers briefed SWAT teams at the Miami Police Department with information about the individuals for whom they were looking, their suspected roles, and the order of entry. This particular case was related to the possession of child sexual abuse material.
"On February 14, 2024, a residential search warrant was executed at the defendant's residence," the arrest report said. "During the interview, the defendant was presented with images of CSAM that were uploaded to his Google account. The defendant [redacted]. During the search of the residence, law enforcement seized multiple electronic devices including the defendant's Android phone."
After SWAT secured the scene Wednesday morning, ICAC officers and forensic investigators entered the property and began to document what was there, taking photographs and video, and marking what they found.
Bernis Vargas-Torres, 23, was taken into custody. He appeared in bond court Thursday, and has been charged with multiple counts of possession of images depicting sexual performance by a child.
"A preliminary forensic examination of the defendant's phone revealed multiple files which meet the criteria for child sexual abuse material under Florida State statutes," the arrest report said.
Detectives said that the children in the sexual abuse material were estimated to be as young as 4 and as old as 9.
"There are times where it's rough, but it's kind of, as you're going through those moments, you kind of just remind yourself that there's a purpose for why you're doing it, and it's not for everybody," one detective told NBC6, sharing how he pushes through this challenging work. "Somebody has to do it because this is a much bigger problem than, I would say, most people realize. It's growing, literally, by the month."
The detectives also said that there is no specific demographic for the offenders in these cases.
Although many of the unit's tips begin with content found on social media and other online platforms, detectives said that they have also seen instances were offenders have hacked into home security cameras to get an inside look at citizens' private lives, and even situations where offenders have taken inappropriate photos or tried to make contact with children in public.
"Even a big one now is Roblox. You think it's just the kids. There's perpetrators on these gaming sites and stuff like that, trying to entice these children," a detective said. "We get, what we call here, floor cases, meaning, most of the tie, for us, a parent will be going through their child's phone or any kind of tablet or whatever, and they'll see that they're sending videos or sending pictures or receiving or doing something that they're not supposed to be doing. So then, they'll come here and report it. We are starting to get those more and more."
Those in the ICAC detail said that parental and guardian involvement is key in catching this explolitation.
"It's important that parents don't just send their kids to their room with their tablets or their phones, and no know what they're doing," one of the detectives said. "Check up on it. If you go through and you see something, come in here. If you live in the City of Miami, let us know, so we can help you."
