25 July 2023
A Minnesota man has been arrested and charged with soliciting girls through social media to make child pornography, and sexually assaulted at least one victim in Ramsey County, federal officials say.
Caleb Vincent McLaughlin, 26, of Pine County, was charged last week in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis with soliciting, producing, receiving and distributing child pornography, and enticing a child to engage in illegal sexual activity.
McLaughlin went before Magistrate Judge Dulce Foster on Tuesday and was ordered held without bail. His attorney did not respond to a request for comment on the charges.
Starting around January 2019, McLaughlin used social media accounts and apps to solicit and direct Minnesota girls, between the ages of 11 and 16 years old, to create sexually explicit images and videos to send to him, according to the criminal complaint.
McLaughlin used several aliases and Snapchat IDs, including “Jake Benson,” “Lift11” or “Tech4cm,” and sometimes pretended to be 17 years old “to prey on girls he met online,” prosecutors say.
McLaughlin would offer minor girls drugs, alcohol, cash or gift cards in exchange for sex acts, the complaint alleges.
The charges allege that McLaughlin coerced one girl into sex acts “in and around Ramsey County” over a six-month time period last year.
Law enforcement has identified several minor victims and is “actively attempting to confirm the identity of many others,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a statement. They urge anyone who has been victimized by McLaughlin or knows of his victims to contact the FBI tip line at 1-800-CALL-FBI (1-800-225-5324) or go to tips.fbi.gov.
Agencies that investigated the case include the FBI, St. Paul police, the Pine County sheriff’s office and the Hennepin County sheriff’s office.
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