Carteret, Perth Amboy Men Arrested In Child Sex Crime Sweep

CARTERET, NJ — Men from Carteret, Perth Amboy, South Amboy and Sayreville were arrested and charged as part of a sting completed June 30 of online child sex predators, done by the New Jersey Attorney General's office.

The Carteret man, Samuel Santiago, 54, is also a retired Hudson County corrections officer; he worked for 25 years at the Hudson County Jail.

Santiago was arrested June 30 and is charged with molesting an underage girl and possession of child sexual abuse material. He allegedly assaulted the victim by touching her genitals both over and under her clothing. After Santiago was arrested, investigators discovered that he allegedly had numerous videos of child sexual abuse material on his cell phone.

Peter Eskow, 45, of Perth Amboy is a technology manager; he was arrested June 24. Eskow allegedly possessed more than 80,000 files of child sexual abuse material on an external hard drive, according to State Police and the Attorney General's office.

Ryan Becker, 32, of South Amboy, is a warehouse worker. He was arrested June 30 and charged with distribution and possession of child sex abuse materials, and tampering with evidence.

Franco Grasparil, 21, of Sayreville, is a student. He was arrested April 28 and charged with possession of child sex abuse material.

The sting was called "Operation 24/7" and it ran for three months, from April 1 to June 30 of this year. In total, 31 men were arrested, ranging in age from 18 to 65.

As part of the investigation, law enforcement monitored these apps: Kik, Skout, Grindr, Whisper, Omegle, Tinder, Chat Avenue, Chat Roulette, Wishbone, Live.ly, Musical.ly, Paltalk, Yubo, Hot or Not, Down, and Tumblr. In the pasts, arrests have also been made involving the gaming apps Fortnite, Minecraft and Discord.

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