Sting Operation Leads to Possession of Child Porn Charges

A 27-year-old Eagan man was arrested on Dec. 26 after allegedly admitting to police that he had "hundreds of images of child pornography" on his computer as well as 20 videos depicting similar imagery.

Nicoantonio James Gould faces four felony counts of possession of pornographic work involving minors stemming from a 2010 sting operation conducted by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA). According to Minnesota statutes, a person convicted of a single possession of child porn charge can be sentenced to a maximum of five years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

According to the complaint, Gould admitted to possessing the imagery after Eagan police met with him at his place of employment. 

During the BCA operation, investigators used forensic software to browse peer-to-peer (P2P) networks to identify individuals storing pornographic images of children in shared folders.

All told, investigators found a total of 403 images of "child erotica and child pornography" in shared folders connected to an IP address later found to belong to Gould.   

The images were sent to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) which then identified 52 images as being "known victims of child sexual abuse." 

Gould is scheduled to appear in Dakota County court for an omnibus hearing on Mar. 27.