An FBI employee from Nashville is held under federal custody and accused of trading inappropriate sexual videos and pictures with a 14-year-old girl from Rhode island.
The Nashville-based FBI electronics technician named Justin D. Carroll was arrested by FBI agents while he arrived to work, said acting U.S. Attorney Mary Jane Stewart for the Middle District of Tennessee.
Carroll, who is charged with sexual exploitation of children and receipt of child pornography, will have to appear before a U.S. Magistrate Judge Tuesday afternoon. If convicted of the charges, he might face up to 50 years in prison.
According to the criminal complaint pinned against him, Carroll was identified as the user of an email id connected to the exchange of sexually explicit images and videos with an underage girl.
FBI agents began suspicious in March when a package was received at the Nashville FBI office that had no name of the recipient but only had a return address from Rhode Island, who agents monitored and found out the sender was a minor girl. As per the affidavit, the package prompted FBI bomb technicians to step in only to find that it contained a teddy bear and a bunch of candies.
The FBI agents began their probe and found that Carroll had met the 14-year-old girl online and chatted with her in the summer of 2020 and their communication also moved to Google Hangout and email, including the girls school email account.
The messages exchanged between the two were of desires of sexual intercourse, love, and also sexually explicit photos and videos were transmitted. The investigation found that Carroll had previously provided the girl with his mailing address and also sent the Nashville's FBI address.
The investigation also identified that Carroll had attempted to contact other minor girls in return for sexually explicit pictures and the case still remains open.
''I commend the leadership of the FBI for their quick and decisive action in this matter. Once the suspect was identified as an FBI support employee, agents took swift action to prevent the continued victimization of this child and others. We will continue to work vigorously with our FBI partners to hold this individual accountable,'' said Attorney Mary Jane Stewart in a statement.
