Wenatchee Man Charged With Possession of Child Pornography

The Wenatchee Police Department arrested a Wenatchee man for possession of child pornography last week, the latest development in a case that began in December.

Captain Edgar Reinfeld said they were able to apprehend Jose A. Mendoza after a tip from the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force.

"It's a clearing house for cases where people report potential internet crimes against children. In this case, possession of child pornography. They had been tipped by Google Inc." Reinfeld explained, "Google, as a routine part of what they are doing with their storage, certainly watches for certain files."

Mendoza was found to be in possession of over 170 images of child pornography.

"A lot of these child pornography images have been around for many years." Reinfeld continued, "There is a thing called a 'hash' that is basically this permanent identifier that goes with a certain file. There are thousands and thousands of known files that are validated, confirmed child victims of sexual exploitation. Some of these files crossed Google Drive's platform."

Mendoza been charged with five counts of possessing images depicting child pornography and is currently being held at the Chelan County Jail. Detectives collected devices capable of storing more images, so possible additional charges are pending the forensic investigation.