HAMPTON — A local man is facing multiple charges of possessing child sex abuse images after he allegedly uploaded them to a cloud storage service.
Daniel A. Mercado Rivas, 33, of Hampton, was arraigned on 15 counts of possession of child sex abuse images in Rockingham Superior Court on July 21.
According to police, the investigation began in February after Nashua police received a CyberTip reported by the file hosting service Dropbox Inc. to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC).
The CyberTip reported that on Aug. 26, 2020, Dropbox became aware of 33 flagged images classified as child sex abuse images. According to a police affidavit filed by Hampton police Sgt. Stephen Champey, Nashua Detective Adam Rayho initiated the investigation in his role assigned to the attorney general's Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. Rayho learned 11 of the 33 files were "identified children" with the NCMEC. Police said they ran the IP address through the American Registry of Internet Numbers which led to a Sprint IP address and Fairpoint Communications IP address, leading to Mercado Rivas.
Dropbox Inc. first reported the images
A search warrant was issued to Dropbox Inc. in December 2020, which showed the account belonging to Mercado Rivas was still active and contained hundreds of uploaded images and videos, according to authorities. "The uploads would not all be considered child sex abuse images, but in viewing the images and videos, most depict males that appear to be young teens engaged in sexual activity or posing for photos," stated Champey in the affidavit.
Police conducted a search of Mercado Rivas' home on May 3, where police seized his cell phone and a Lenovo laptop. A forensic search of the computer by the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force discovered thousands of thumbnail photos, with five positively identified as child sex abuse images. The phone also had five photos identified as child sex abuse images, according to authorities. Champey stated in the affidavit he had a previous encounter with Mercado Rivas in 2014. Champey stated Mercado Rivas was a suspect of a sexual assault of a minor child and manufacturing child pornography.
The investigation, he stated, lacked probable cause in New Hampshire and fell into the jurisdiction of the Lawrence, Massachusetts Police Department. A criminal record search for Mercado Rivas, he stated, shows no convictions. If convicted of possessing child sex abuse images, Mercado Rivas faces a sentence of 7 ½ to 15 years in prison and a fine of $4,000 on each count.
