Crime & Safety

Aberdeen Man Charged In Massive Child Pornography Sting

Kevin Wenng of the Clifford Beach section is charged with possessing child pornography under the auspices of a major porn sting.

ABERDEEN, NJ - Authorities have charged a Clifford Beach section man with possessing child pornography in connection with a massive statewide investigation that resulted in the arrest of 79 people.

Kevin Wenng, 35, was charged with possessing child pornography when state Attorney General Christopher S. Porrino announced the arrests of 79 child predators and child pornography offenders in “Operation Safety Net,” a nine-month, multi-agency child protection initiative led by the New Jersey Regional Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force.

Partnering agencies targeted sex offenders who exploited the internet and social media, making arrests in every New Jersey county and deploying, for the first time, a new van equipped as a mobile cyber forensics lab, as well as a new canine trained to sniff out electronic devices, to assist in execution of search warrants.

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Those arrested in Operation Safety Net included 10 “hands-on” offenders, including child predators in California and Indiana who allegedly tried to have children transported interstate from New Jersey by adult traffickers so they could have sex with the children; four men in New Jersey who allegedly sought to lure children for sex; a camp counselor who allegedly sexually assaulted a girl, 14, under his supervision; a youth minister who allegedly sent lewd photos of himself to a young girl; and a man, 24, who allegedly used a phone app to record underage girls performing sex acts on themselves.

Those arrested also included numerous defendants, ranging in age from 14 to 75, who allegedly amassed or distributed large collections of child pornography, including a Trenton police officer, a swimming coach, a piano teacher, an IT professional from Morris County who was charged with having more than 138,000 files of suspected child pornography, a mechanic from Mercer County who allegedly had more than 10,000 files of child porn and three brothers in Cumberland County who were charged with possessing nearly 5,000 files of child pornography.

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