A special child exploitation detail of the San José Police Department has arrested seven men for attempting to communicate with a minor with the intent to commit sexual acts.
Investigators with the Silicon Valley Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force said the suspects, from San Jose, Sunnyvale, Fremont and Oakland, used social media applications earlier this month believing they were communicating with a juvenile under 14 years of age. Some of the suspects offered money in exchange for sexual favors.
The suspects were identified as: Joseph Elder, 29, San Jose; Cristian Josue Garcia Lopez, 36, Oakland; Charles Madkins, San Jose, 47;Gerardo Rosas, 52, Sunnyvale; Nitinkumar Panchal, 29, Fremont; Gures Siyar, 27, Sunnyvale; Ralph Toledo, 25, San Jose.
Police said the investigation entailed online communications between April 1 and April 4, leading the suspects to arrange meetings with a minor and arriving at a location for the purpose of engaging in sexual activities.
Detectives, with the assistance of the SJPD Human Trafficking Unit and Covert Response Unit, located and arrested six of the seven suspects at the arranged meeting locations in the city of San José. The last suspect, Charles Madkins, was apprehended at a later date.
Police said Rosas was located and arrested on April 1; Elder, Toledo, and Garcia Lopez were located and arrested on April 2; Siyar and Panchal were located and arrested on April 3, and Madkins was located and arrested on April 7.
All suspects were booked into Santa Clara County Main Jail for crimes related to communicating with a minor to commit sex acts, police said.
Investigators said the investigation was made possible by a multi-agency collaboration that included the FBI, Santa Clara and Mountain View police, the Marin County District Attorney’s Office, and the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office.
The Silicon Valley Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force Program is led by the San José Police Department, and expands from Monterey to Napa County and involves over 100 Bay Area agencies and over 300 members.
The task force helps state and local law enforcement agencies develop an effective response to technology-facilitated child sexual exploitation and Internet crimes against children. In 2024, the task force received 13,451 CyberTips related to reports of child sexual assault, completed the review of thousands of CyberTips and conducted over 416 investigations, resulting in over 429 arrests.
The task force last year reported it had rescued 68 children from ongoing sexual abuse, identified 88 child survivors with their sexual abuse material online and conducted over 2,780 digital forensic examinations. At least 15% of the arrests resulted in rescuing children from ongoing sexual abuse in 2024.
