Welland Man Arrested for Sharing Child Sexual Abuse Material on the Internet

Niagara Regional Police Detectives assigned to the Internet Child Exploitation Unit began an investigation in August into numerous uploads of Child Sexual Abuse Material to a Google cloud-based storage service. On Wednesday, detectives executed a search warrant at a private residence in Welland and seized devices capable of storing electronic data. The devices were examined by members of the NRPS Technological Crimes Unit. The examination uncovered evidence relating to accessing and sharing images of Child Sexual Abuse Material on the internet. On Thursday, ICE Unit detectives located and arrested 28 year-old Joshau Couto Paiva of Welland, who is now facing charges including two counts of possessing child pornography and one count of accessing Child Pornography. Joshua Couto PAIVA was held in custody after his arrest and is set to appear for a bail hearing on Friday in St. Catharines.