A knock on the door of 31-year-old Austin resident by cyber investigators led to his arrest and he now remains in custody at Travis County Jail for child pornography possession.
Rene DeLaCruz was arrested by Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott’s Cyber Crimes Unit on Feb. 22, 2013 after a search warranty by the agents was executed on Feb. 20.
A referral from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) set the Cyber Crimes Unit into action. They identified DeLaCruz as the suspect who was illegally uploading images of child porn to his online storage account.
Agents found the pornography after they checked the suspect’s computers, cell phones, digitial camer and media storage devices.
Cyber investigators conducted an initial forensic examination of one of DeLaCruz’s computers and found multiple illicit images of children being sexually assaulted.
DeLaCruz now faces three third-degree felony counts of child pornography possession, each punishable by two to 10 years in prison and up to a $10,000 fine. Bond was set at $15,000 for each of the three counts.
Attorney General Abbott has earned a national reputation for aggressively arresting and prosecuting online child predators. In 2003, he created the Cyber Crimes Unit, which protects children from online sexual exploitation.
The Cyber Crimes Unit and the Fugitive Unit, which locates sex offenders who have violated the terms of their parole, have combined to arrest more than 2,100 child sex predators.
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