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The Jackson Parish Sheriff’s Office and the FBI teamed up in an investigation leading to two arrests for operating an online business distributing child pornography on the Internet’s “dark web.”
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One of the persons arrested is Brandon Michael Werner, a registered sex offender that has reached Tier 3, and lives in Missouri. The charges that necessitated his arrest was first-degree rape.
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The authorities also arrested Lorraine Hart, the mother of the victim, because she participated in first-degree rape & sex trafficking of children.
A disturbing case has come about in Louisiana, in which a mother is accused of selling access to her own child. The arrests are part of a major dark web investigation. Authorities say the material was created and distributed online.
The Joint Investigation and Arrests
The Jackson Parish Sheriff’s Office joined an FBI investigation on October 8. They quickly identified Brandon Michael Werner as a suspect. Werner was a registered Tier 3 sex offender from Missouri.
Deputies found a house in Jonesboro where Werner was staying. They obtained and executed a search warrant. Officials took Werner into custody without any trouble.
The authorities also found a minor inside the home. They identified this child in the abuse material. Werner bagged first-degree rape charges plus failure to register as a sex offender, which landed him in the Jackson Parish Jail.
The Mother’s Involvement
The investigation then took an even darker turn. Evidence showed the victim’s own mother was involved.
Authorities say Lorraine Hart accepted payment from Werner in exchange for creating the abuse material. Police caught and arrested her on November 21.
Now she has bagged criminal felony counts of ‘first-degree rape & child sex trafficking. The investigation is still an ongoing one as of now, and the law enforcement agency is yet to release more details of the entire situation to safeguard the integrity of the victim.
Recent Cyber Criminal Investigations
This Louisiana case highlights a grim reality. The dark web is a place where illegal stuff spreads fast, enabling offenders ranging from out-of-state predators to trusted community figures like the teen soccer coach facing sentencing in a dark web child exploitation case. So, local and federal police need to team up—it’s the only way to keep up with it.
Not long after the Louisiana big bust, authorities in Florida made a similar arrest. The Osceola County Sheriff’s Office picked up Janderson Freitas-Leite. Allegedly, he is claimed to have obtained materials for sexual abuse of children from the darknet, paying for them with Bitcoin.
The investigation began from information provided by the National Center for Missing or Exploited Children, and members of the investigators arrived on November 14 at the suspect’s residence with a search warrant.
When they entered, they conducted an extensive search of Freitas-Leite’s cell phones and computers and found more than enough evidence to charge him with the crime. On November 20, they arrested him for having child porn—eight counts.
Stories like this show that law enforcement agencies are not giving up any time soon. They are watching everything that is happening on the dark web & look out for signs that predators are on the move. Protecting the weak & vulnerable users from bad actors matters, & it’s just as important to make sure that those abusers don’t go free.
The Global Fight and How You Can Help
This fight isn’t just happening in one city or country. It’s global. The FBI, Interpol, and other agencies have whole teams dedicated to shutting down these dark web platforms hosting abusive materials.
Their efforts have made huge impacts. Every arrest—like the ones in Louisiana and Florida—means a child escapes ongoing abuse. It also breaks up the cycle of exploitation.
Regular folks can help in this fight, too. Your vigilance can be key in saving a kid from abuse. If you notice something weird online, report it fast.
Agencies like the National Center for Missing or Exploited Children (NCMEC) with the CyberTipline unit are there to receive your report and act on it. Really, don’t take matters into your own hands. If something doesn’t seem right, say something and let the people trained to help you handle it do so.
