FBI MAKES ARREST IN CHILD PORNOGRAPHY MATTER
Carl Whitehead, Special Agent in Charge of the Tampa Division of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) announced the arrest of Samuel Mathews.
Mr. Mathews ,53 years old, was arrested Friday, May 18, 2007+ by the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Innocent Images Task Force (IITF).
Mr. Mathews was arrested in Brandon, Florida, without incident, on Federal charges involving the violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 2251a, which is the attempted production of child pornography.
The FBI's Innocent Images Task Force is a multi-agency task force comprised of the FBI, the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office, the Largo Police Department, the Manatee County Sheriff's Office, the Lakeland Police Department and the United States Probation Office. The Task Force is an intelligence driven, proactive investigative initiative to combat the proliferation of child pornography and child sexual exploitation facilitated by the Internet. The mission of the Innocent Images Task Force is to reduce the vulnerability of children to acts of sexual exploitation and abuse facilitated through computers; to identify and rescue witting and unwitting child victims; and to investigate and prosecute sexual predators who use the Internet to sexually exploit children for personal and financial gain.
The IITF worked with the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office (PCSO) Sexual Predator Offender Tracking (SPOT) Unit to develop information leading to Mr. Mathews’ arrest.
Mr. Mathews is scheduled for his initial appearance today. If convicted of this charge, Mr. Mathews faces a 35 year maximum sentence of incarceration.
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