Coalhurst man charged in child exploitation bust

Posted on July 5, 2023 by Sunny South News

Southern Alberta Newspapers

A Coalhurst man has been charged as part of a ring of child exploitation suspects in Alberta.

Chris Jenkins, 31, is facing charges of possession of child pornography, access child pornography, and make available child pornography.

Operation ICE Storm 5 has led to the arrest of eight child sexual exploitation suspects. ALERT’s Internet Child Exploitation team made the arrests over the past three months in Calgary and Coalhurst.

Internet Child Exploitation (ICE) team launched Operation ICE Storm 5 in April 2023 and focused on high-level targets that were sharing and distributing vast collections of child sexual exploitation materials via peer-to-peer file sharing networks.

Operation ICE Storm 5 prioritized suspects with the largest collections and some of the most graphic content. To date, nearly one million child sexual exploitation photos and videos have been identified. More than 35 computers and electronic devices were seized resulting in terabytes of data for forensics technicians to analyze.

At this point of the investigation, ICE investigators do not believe any of the victims are from Alberta, or that any hands-on offences had taken place.

Anyone with information about this investigation, or any child exploitation offence is encouraged to contact police or cybertip.ca.

Seven other suspects were arrested and each face charges of possession of child pornography, access child pornography, and make available child pornography:

• Claudio Foglia, 60, of Calgary;

• Warren Flemming, 40, of Calgary;

• Craig Drumgold, 49, of Calgary;

• Tyler Sartison, 54, of Calgary;

• Derek Eichele, 59, of Calgary;

• Thomas Weatherhead, 51, of Calgary;

• Jesse Carlson-Lepage, 35, of Calgary;

Operation ICE Storm 5 relied on the assistance of a number of police agencies, including the Calgary Police Service, Lethbridge Police Service, Medicine Hat Police Service, Canmore RCMP, and Coalhurst RCMP.