Rochelle, GA (April 29, 2022) – On Friday, April 22, 2022, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation’s Child Exploitation and Computer Crimes (CEACC) Unit, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), and the Wilcox County Sheriff’s Office, executed a residential search warrant related to an ongoing sexual exploitation of children investigation.  The investigation was initiated by HSI and involved a man possessing and distributing explicit child sexual abuse material (CSAM), commonly referred to as child pornography, via the internet, which resolved to Wilcox County, GA.

As a result of the search warrant execution, the following individual was arrested:

James Ronald Beasley, Jr, age 33, of Rochelle, Georgia was charged with two counts Child Molestation, one count of Aggravated Child Molestation, one count of Sexual Exploitation of Children (Distribution of Child Pornography), one count of Sexual Exploitation of Children (Production of Child Pornography), and one count of Trafficking of Persons for Labor or Sexual Servitude. Beasley, Jr. was transported to the Wilcox County Jail upon his arrest.

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. 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.

Anyone with information about other cases of child exploitation is asked to contact the Georgia Bureau of Investigation Child Exploitation and Computer Crimes Unit at 404-270-8870. Tips can also be submitted by calling 1-800-597-TIPS(8477), online at https://gbi.georgia.gov/submit-tips-online, or by downloading the See Something, Send Something mobile app.