An admitted Internet child pornography pusher from Lakewood heads to prison, for up to five years.

Fabian Maldonado Espinosa (NJ Atty. General's Office)
Fabian Maldonado Espinosa (NJ Atty. General's Office)
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Fabian Maldonado-Espinosa, 32, was sentenced May 12 for his January guilty plea to a second-degree distribution charge, according to the office of New Jersey Attorney General Christopher S. Porrino.

Maldonado-Espinosa was among 40 arrestees in 2016's Operation Statewide crackdown by the sate Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force. Defendants were apprehended in all 21 New Jersey counties.

In Toms River, Ocean County Judge Wendel Daniels ordered Maldonado-Espinosa to serve two-and-a-half years before parole eligibility, register as a sex offender in compliance with Megan's Law, and observe lifetime parole supverision.

In accepting the plea of guilty, Maldonado-Espinosa confessed to using file-sharing software to create multiple files of lewd images, keeping them an accessible shared folder.

New Jersey State Police digital investigators downloaded a video involving a young girl performing a sex act with a man from Maldonado-Espinosa's folder, and monitored a peer-to-peer file sharing network frequented by sex offenders, authorities said.

Maldonado-Espinosa was arrested in July 2016, after investigators traced the video to the IP address connected to his computer. Examination of laptops, hard drives and an iPad produced a stash of images in a shared folder on one laptop, authorities said.

Authorities pointed out that pornography in file sharing networks is routinely recirculated, creating continual re-victimization of children who suffered sexual abuse or assault. Information about this type of activity can be given directly to ICAC through its tip line, 888-648-6007.

Maldonado-Espinosa was represented by Ocean County Assistant Deputy Public Defender Melissa Barbier.

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