Attorney General Gurbir S. Grewal announced that a man who was arrested last year in “Operation Safety Net” was sentenced to state prison today for distributing explicit images of minors, on the internet.
Officials say, Laurence Duque, 43, of South Brunswick, was sentenced today to six years in state prison, including three years of parole ineligibility, by Superior Court Judge Benjamin S. Bucca Jr. in Middlesex County. Duque pleaded guilty on Oct. 26 to second-degree distribution of explicit images of minors.
He will be required to register as a sex offender under Megan’s Law and will be subject to parole supervision for life according to officials.
While monitoring a peer-to-peer network as part of “Operation Safety Net,” a detective of the Division of Criminal Justice downloaded numerous files of explicit images of minors from a shared folder at an IP address that was subsequently traced to Duque.
Members of the Division of Criminal Justice, South Brunswick Police Department, Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office, U.S. Homeland Security Investigations, and the New Jersey State Police executed a search warrant at Duque’s residence on Aug. 22, 2017. Duque was arrested after investigators found numerous files of suspected explicit images of minors on his computer equipment.
A full forensic examination revealed over 4,000 explicit images of minors on the computer devices seized from his residence. Duque became a fugitive in September 2017. He was apprehended in Penobscot, Maine in June 2018 by the U.S. Marshals Service Fugitive Task Force.
Attorney General Grewal and Director Allende urged anyone with information about the distribution of explicit images of minors on the internet – or about suspected improper contact by unknown persons communicating with a minor via the internet or possible exploitation or abuse of a minor – to contact the New Jersey Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force Tipline at 888-648-6007.