(COLUMBIA, S.C.) – South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson announced the arrest of Armondo Cortez Barrios, 20, of Conway, S.C., on 11 charges connected to the sexual exploitation of minors. Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force investigators with the Horry County Sheriff’s Office made the arrest. Investigators with the S.C. Attorney General’s Office and Horry County Police Department, both also members of the state’s ICAC Task Force, assisted with the investigation.
Investigators received CyberTipline reports from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) which led them to Barrios. Investigators state Barrios distributed multiple files of child sexual abuse material.
Barrios was arrested on November 16, 2021. He is charged with 11 counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, second degree (§16-15-405), a felony offense punishable by up to 10 years imprisonment on each count.
This case will be prosecuted by the Attorney General’s Office.
Attorney General Wilson stressed all defendants are presumed innocent unless and until they are proven guilty in a court of law.
* Child sexual abuse material, or CSAM, is a more accurate reflection of the material involved in these heinous and abusive crimes. “Pornography” can imply the child was a consenting participant. Globally, the term child pornography is being replaced by CSAM for this reason.