LASARA — A 36-year-old Lasara man faces charges of child exploitation after a task force arrested him.
Rodolfo Mireles Jr. was arrested Jan. 25 at a home in the 5700 block of Third Street, Nina Pruneda, spokeswoman for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said yesterday.
Purneda said a judge charged Mireles with possession and distribution of child pornography.
The Rio Grande Valley Child Exploitation Task Force arrested Mireles, Pruneda said.
Pruneda said helicopters with the Customs and Border Protection Air and Marine branch assisted in the operation.
“We’re very involved in child pornography,” she said of the agency’s investigations of such cases.
Homeland Security Investigations’ Brownsville office led the operation with assistance from U.S. Customs and Border Protection Air and Marine branch, the Texas Department of Public Safety and the Willacy County Sheriff’s Office.
The task force “takes a comprehensive proactive approach in the criminal apprehension and prosecution of individuals who sexually exploit children,” Pruneda stated.
The task force is made of Homeland Security Investigations special agents and investigators with the agency’s Brownsville, Harlingen and McAllen offices along with the U.S. Marshals Service, the Brownsville Police Department, the Harlingen Police Department, the Cameron County Sheriff’s Office, the Brownsville school district police department, the Cameron County District Attorney’s Office and the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
