Former Fayette County man jailed in Florida on charges of possessing and distributing child abuse material.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) on April 27 announced that former Fayette County resident Elan Ben-Hanania, 30, was arrested and charged with three counts of sexual exploitation of children-possession of child sexual abuse material and three counts sexual exploitation of children-distribution of child sexual abuse material by the GBI’s Child Exploitation and Computer Crimes (CEACC) Unit.
Ben-Hanania currently resides in Orlando, Fla., where he is in custody and awaiting extradition, the GBI press release said.
The GBI CEACC Unit began an investigation into Ben-Hanania’s online activity after receiving cybertips from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) regarding the online possession and distribution of images depicting child sexual abuse material (CSAM), according to GBI.
“The investigation revealed the identity of the subject, Ben-Hanania, and that the possession and distribution of the CSAM occurred within Fayette County, Ga.,” the GBI press release said. “At the time that arrest warrants were obtained for Ben-Hanania, he had relocated to Orlando, Fla. The GBI obtained assistance from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) in locating and arresting Ben-Hanania on the criminal charges from Georgia.”
This investigation is 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, according to the press release.
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.
