A Long Island pastor was arrested and charged with producing child pornography, the FBI announced on Thursday.
Jose Saez, Jr. was busted after officers from the FBI’s Long Island Child Exploitation Task Force received an online tip that the pastor had been sexually active with children, the agency’s New York office said.
While executing a search warrant, officers went through Saez’s phone and found 15 videos containing child pornography in a saved conversation on Telegram, according to the criminal complaint.
One of the videos included a 16-year-old boy performing sex acts, the complaint said.
Saez — a father of three young children — told officers he knew the minor was a high school student and he had requested the boy send him the videos.
He saved the clips and sent them to at least 10 other people, he said.
Saez admitted to officers that he has engaged in similar conduct with multiple other minors, telling them, “I’m sorry that I cannot stop,” according to the complaint.
Saez is a pastor at the Iglesia Cristiana Alumbrando El Camino Church, News12 first reported.
“The production of child pornography is one of the most horrendous crimes we deal with in our society,” James Smith, Assistant Director in Charge of FBI New York, said in a statement.
“It is even more concerning when the crime is allegedly committed by a leader in a local house of worship,” he said.
