Community
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Child Pornography Suspect Arrested
| Nature of Incident: | Child Pornography Suspect Arrested | ||||
| Report Number: | 25-118639 | ||||
| Location: | Calle Vista in Camarillo | ||||
| Date & Time: | 06/18/26 @ 09:30 a.m. | ||||
| Unit(s) Responsible: | Major Crimes Bureau Camarillo Special Enforcement Unit Southern California High Tech Task Force |
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| (S)uspects, (V)ictims, (P)arty, (D)ecedent |
City of Residence |
Age | |||
| (A) James Castaneda |
Camarillo |
34 | |||
| Narrative: | |||||
| Acting on information from a CyberTip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), detectives identified James Castaneda as a suspect in a possession and distribution of child pornography case. During the investigation, detectives determined Castaneda received and distributed Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM) on various social media sites. On June 18, 2026, Castaneda was contacted near his residence and arrested for multiple charges related to this case. Castaneda was subsequently booked into the Ventura County Pre-Trial Detention Facility and is currently being held on $500,000 bail pending his arraignment. This investigation is ongoing. The Ventura County Sheriff’s Office believes there could be victims who were known to Castaneda. If you have any information regarding Castaneda, please contact Detective Mitchell Peterson of the Sheriff’s Major Crimes Unit at 805-384-4728. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) serves as an information clearinghouse and national resource center on issues related to victims, missing and exploited children and operates a national toll-free hotline. NCMEC works with families, victims, private industry, law enforcement, and the public to assist with preventing child abductions, recovering missing children, and providing services to deter and combat child sexual exploitation. Supervised by the Ventura County District Attorney’s Office, the High-Tech Task Force is made up of investigators from the District Attorney’s Office, deputies from the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office, and civilian computer forensic examiners. The unit provides highly technical computer forensic support for law enforcement agencies which includes assisting in preserving electronic evidence in the field and performing forensic examinations of digital evidence in a lab environment. The Ventura County Sheriff’s Office would like to remind parents to remain vigilant as to their children’s social media and internet activities to keep them safe from predators and that there are resources that can assist them in keeping their children safe by teaching them about internet safety. The best tool we have to prevent Internet crimes against children is education. |
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| Prepared by: | Sergeant Corey Stump | ||||
| News Release Date: | 06/20/26 | ||||
| Media Follow-Up Contact: | [email protected] (805) 384-4728 |
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| Approved by: Booking Photo Release: |
Captain Victor Medina YES NO |
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Address/Location
Ventura County Sheriff's Office
800 S Victoria Ave
Ventura, CA 93003
Contact
Emergency: 9-1-1
Non-emergencies: 805-654-9511