COLUMBIA — A 15-year-old from Columbia was arrested on suspicion of retaining and distributing child pornography.
Police arrested the suspect Monday after seizing computers and related media from a south Columbia residence. The computers and electronic storage contained almost 200 pornographic images and files.
They found 133 videos and 57 photographs, according to Detective Andy Anderson of the Boone County Sheriff's Department.
Anderson said the arrest was the result of an ongoing operation by the Mid-Missouri Internet Crimes Task Force, a joint venture between the Sheriff's Department, the Columbia Police Department and the Boone County Prosecuting Attorney's Office.
The task force conducts investigations into file-sharing programs to determine if pornography is distributed in mid-Missouri. In this case, the files were distributed through the file-sharing network Gnutella.
Because the suspect is a juvenile, Anderson could not say whether he is in custody. There is no word on whether the suspect will be tried as an adult.