COVINGTON, Ga. – The GBI has charged a Newton County man with possessing child sexual abuse material.

Pedro Lopez Jr., age 63, of Covington was charged with two counts of Sexual Exploitation of Children (Possession of Child Sexual Abuse Material) by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation’s Child Exploitation and Computer Crimes (CEACC) Unit on Thursday, April 28, a news release stated. 

Lopez was in custody at the Newton County Detention Center on unrelated charges when he was charged. He was being held there on the new charges without bond, according to jail records.

The GBI CEACC Unit began an investigation into Lopez's online activity after receiving a cybertip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) regarding the online possession of images depicting child sexual abuse material (CSAM). The investigation revealed the identity of the subject, Pedro Lopez Jr., which subsequently led to the charges. 

The Newton County Sheriff’s Office assisted the GBI in the case.

It was part of the ongoing effort by the Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force, housed within the GBI’s Child Exploitation and Computer Crimes Unit, to identify those involved in the child pornography trade. 

The ICAC Program, created by the U.S. Department of Justice, was developed in response to the increasing number of children and teenagers using the Internet, the proliferation of child sexual abuse material, and the heightened online activity by predators searching for unsupervised contact with underage victims.