Sacramento sheriff: Pedophilia suspect arrested
May 13 2010
A suspected pedophile who allegedly was trading child porn over the Internet and trying to get a young girl sent to him from Brazil for sex was arrested Thursday morning in Solano County, according to authorities.
Working on information from the Sacramento Valley Hi-Tech Crimes Task Force, the California Highway Patrol stopped Benjamin Dee Kendrick (photo left), 39, on westbound Interstate 80 near Davis and ordered him from the car.
He reportedly emerged from the car and told officers, "I'm the guy you are looking for," said Sacramento County sheriff's Capt. Jim Cooper, who oversees the task force.
Kendrick was arrested and booked into the Sacramento County Main Jail on suspicion of possessing obscene material depicting a child under the age of 14 and soliciting to commit a crime, according to jail booking records. He is being held in lieu of $1 million bail for those charges, plus $1,379 for various traffic violations, records show.
Authorities had been on the hunt for Kendrick since they obtained a warrant for his arrest. In March, task force detectives began investigating the trading of child pornography over the Internet, a trail that led them to Kendrick's home in April, according to sheriff's Sgt. Tim Curran.
After serving a search warrant, detectives seized Kendrick's computer and found more than 100 images of child pornography videos and photos, Curran said.
Since then, detectives have found evidence of Internet communication between Kendrick and a woman in Brazil that involved sending the woman's young daughter to Kendrick for sex, and then possibly killing her, Cooper said. Detectives also suspect sexual abuse of the girl, 6 or 7 years old, by her mother, Cooper said.
It's unclear how Kendrick and the woman came into contact, Cooper said. He said both had referred to themselves as pedophiles during the online conversations.
Federal authorities are trying to locate the girl, who is believed to still be in Brazil, Cooper said. It's unclear whether she ever traveled to the United States, he said.
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