MOUNT OLIVE TOWNSHIP, NJ (Morris County) – A Mount Olive Township man has been arrested in connection with maintaining a peer-to-peer child abuse network, and possession of child sex abuse material, according to Morris County Prosecutor Robert J. Carroll.
Jose A. Lousa, 60, has been charged with first-degree endangering the welfare of a child (maintaining a peer-to-peer file sharing program of child sexual abuse materials (CSAM)), and second-degree endangering the welfare of a child (possession of CSAM).
The investigation began when the United States Department of Homeland Security, Homeland Security Investigations Newark – Child Exploitation Group identified possible CSAM on a BitTorrent site, which is a peer-to-peer file sharing network in Morris County, Carroll said.
A further investigation revealed numerous media files, each depicting the alleged sexual exploitation or abuse of a minor, were stored on the BitTorrent site. The investigation further revealed that these files were accessible for download, Carroll said.
It is alleged the BitTorrent was associated with Lousa’s residence. The investigation revealed in excess of 1,000 items of Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) were available for download from the BitTorrent site, Carroll said.
Lousa was arrested on Dec. 7 and following his arrest, he was detained in the Morris County Correctional Facility pending a detention hearing, Carroll said.
Following a detention hearing on Dec. 13, Lousa was released on Pretrial Monitoring Level three. Additional conditions of his release include that he is to have no internet access and no unsupervised contact with anyone under the age of 18, Carroll said.
Anyone with information related to this investigation, is encouraged to call the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force of the Sex Crimes / Child Endangerment Unit of the Morris County Prosecutor’s Office at 973-285-6200.
