On Monday, April 27, 2020, the Polk County Sheriff’s Office arrested a 45-year-old illegal immigrant from Mexico after detectives received a tip that he had been downloading files containing child pornography.
Nabor Molina, who has been residing in Lakeland, was charged with 125 enhanced counts of Possession of Child Pornography (F2). The charges were enhanced from an F3 to an F2 due to the number of files, the age of the children in the images, and the content of the files.
“These images are not just pictures of children without clothes. These videos and images are horrific displays of children being forced to expose their genitals, forced to perform sex acts – images of children being raped. Nabor Molina has access to children; at this time in the investigation, it doesn’t appear that any of them are victims, but we will continue to investigate whether he has abused any children he’s had access to. But Molina is a part of a child pornographic exploitation distribution pipeline that victimizes children across the world. His behavior is disgusting.” Grady Judd, Sheriff.
The PCSO Computer Crimes Unit began working on the investigation in February 2020 after receiving Cyber TipLine reports from NCMEC (National Center for Missing & Exploited Children).
The tips showed that a Google user, later determined to be Molina, downloaded over 200 video files, with several of them depicting child pornography. Once becoming aware of the illicit files, Google reported them to NCMEC.
Detectives reviewed all of the files and identified 125 video files containing child pornography.
The video files consisted of male and female victims, some as young as 18-36 months, being sexually battered by adults or other children, and/or exposed in a lewd manner.
After making a connection between the videos to Molina’s residence, internet service, and cell phone, detectives were able to obtain a search warrant for his home.
Early Monday morning, Molina was arrested during a traffic stop, and his cell phone was confiscated. Detectives then served the search warrant at his home. Various electronic storage devices were collected from the residence and will be searched forensically.
Molina admitted to viewing child pornography and stated that he did so “out of curiosity” and that he accessed it using his WhatsApp account.
Molina was transported to the Polk County Jail, at which time he was also charged with Driving without a Valid Driver’s License.
Due to him being in the United States illegally, ICE Immigration and Customs Enforcement were notified.
Molina is being held without bond and he will face deportation. Additionally, investigators will see who shared images with Molina.
He would face deportation after serving prison time, if he is convicted. If he isn’t convicted, he would be turned over to ICE.
He had seven children at home.