Accused pervert Erick Paniagua from Florida possessed sexual images of children as young as 2 years old: Police

A Florida man has been charged with 15 felony crimes after an investigation found he was allegedly in possession of sexually explicit images and videos of children – some of which were as young as two years old, according to police.

Erick Paniagua, 29, was arrested by Miami-Dade County police at his Richmond West home on Wednesday after authorities discovered the alleged creep had downloaded and uploaded obscene files containing sexual abuse of boys and girls between the ages of 2 and 12, the Miami Herald reported.

Police, along with the Broward County Sheriff's Office, launched their investigation in August after receiving a cyber tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) indicating that Paniagua used the online messaging app Kik to store the files, according to the police report.

According to authorities, Kik reported the account to the NCMEC.

Paniagua was identified as the owner of the Kik account, according to the report, and police later found that he had also used Skiff, an end-to-end encrypted email service, to upload about 100 files to his account registered under the username Richardsman12.

Police executed a search warrant for the residential address associated with the IP service linked to the account – Paniagua's home address – where, after being read his rights, he confessed to the charges, the report said.

Paniagua's electronic devices have been seized and are currently being examined for further evidence, the Herald reported.

Paniagua has been charged with 15 counts of possession of obscene sexual performances by a child and is currently being held at Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center with bail set at $30,000, court records show.