{"id":140975,"date":"2026-02-02T19:07:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-02T19:07:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/140975\/"},"modified":"2026-02-02T19:07:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T19:07:11","slug":"2-tampa-area-men-nabbed-in-child-pornography-investigations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/140975\/","title":{"rendered":"2 Tampa area men nabbed in child pornography investigations"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Attorney General also had updates on other cases during a news conference.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Attorney General <a href=\"https:\/\/www.myfloridalegal.com\/ag-bio\" data-wpel-link=\"external\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"external noopener noreferrer nofollow\">James Uthmeier<\/a> has announced the prosecution of two men suspected of possessing child pornography in the Tampa Bay area.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Uthmeier, flanked by several local, state and federal law enforcement officials, held a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.myfloridalegal.com\/newsrelease\/attorney-general-james-uthmeier-announces-arrests-prosecutions-and-convictions-sexual\" data-wpel-link=\"external\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"external noopener noreferrer nofollow\">news conference<\/a> in Tampa to detail the new arrests and provide updates to other ongoing cases.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u201cWe will come for you with everything we\u2019ve got. We will shut you down. This is our No. 1 priority,\u201d Uthmeier said of those suspected of crimes against children.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">One of the latest arrests included Lucas Jose Herraiz, 42, of St. Petersburg. He was apprehended by police in that city after an online tip via the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.missingkids.org\/home\" data-wpel-link=\"external\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"external noopener noreferrer nofollow\">National Center for Missing and Exploited Children<\/a> led investigators to find an online Dropbox account that included child pornography.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Investigators traced the online account to Herraiz\u2019s home and business and he was charged with 18 counts of child pornography.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/voteshaneabbott.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener external noreferrer nofollow\" data-wpel-link=\"external\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-754714 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Ads-Florida-Politics-Abbott_728x90.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"728\" height=\"90\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">In another case, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fdle.state.fl.us\/\" data-wpel-link=\"external\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"external noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Florida Department of Law Enforcement<\/a> arrested 33-year-old Michael Younce of Citrus County last week on accusations he downloaded and shared child pornography. Officials say he\u2019s charged with nine counts of child pornography for possessing videos on his mobile devices.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Meanwhile, <a href=\"https:\/\/floridapolitics.com\/archives\/770839-james-uthmeier-60-year-prison-sentence-secured-for-southwest-florida-convicted-child-predator\/\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Nathan Holmberg<\/a>, who was charged in December, is facing updated criminal counts. Uthmeier\u2019s Office of Statewide Prosecution filed additional felony charges of lewd and lascivious molestation of a child under 12 years old, along with other allegations.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Holmberg was initially indicted in Hernando County on 25 criminal charges, including seven counts of capital sexual battery on a child under 12. He now faces an additional 47 felony counts.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Uthmeier also pointed out that 50-year-old <a href=\"https:\/\/floridapolitics.com\/archives\/665238-ashley-moodys-office-leads-probe-into-extensive-human-trafficking\/\" data-wpel-link=\"internal\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Marquett James<\/a>, who was convicted in Hillsborough County in November, is being sentenced Friday. He faces a maximum of 120 years in prison after the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dhs.gov\/\" data-wpel-link=\"external\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"external noopener noreferrer nofollow\">Department of Homeland Security<\/a> filed multiple charges involving human trafficking, racketeering and conspiracy to commit racketeering.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Investigators say James forced young women to engage in prostitution, then seized the profits.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/states.aarp.org\/florida\/looking-for-a-volunteer-gig-check-us-out\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener external noreferrer nofollow\" data-wpel-link=\"external\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-772854 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/2291001_Vol_FL_Recruitment_DigitalAds_728x90.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"728\" height=\"90\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Attorney General also had updates on other cases during a news conference. Attorney General James Uthmeier has&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":140976,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[8232,4280,6204,4860,15596,4260,67891,68483,68484,26011,58614,135,137,136],"class_list":{"0":"post-140975","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tampa","8":"tag-attorney-general","9":"tag-child-pornography","10":"tag-department-of-homeland-security","11":"tag-florida-department-of-law-enforcement","12":"tag-human-trafficking","13":"tag-james-uthmeier","14":"tag-lucas-jose-herraiz","15":"tag-marquett-james","16":"tag-michael-younce","17":"tag-nathan-holmberg","18":"tag-national-center-for-missing-and-exploited-children","19":"tag-tampa","20":"tag-tampa-headlines","21":"tag-tampa-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140975","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=140975"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140975\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/140976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=140975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=140975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=140975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}