The Following was released from the Bay County Sheriff’s Office:

Previous investigation identified individuals living within the residences that had downloaded child pornography from the internet. Search warrants were obtained and nine were arrested and charged with Possession of Pictures or Video Depicting Sexual Performance of a Child. Those arrested were: Marcus Alexander Pierce, DOB 6/28/85, of 300 Cabana Blvd., Panama City, Brian E. Glass, DOB 10/10/89, of 7814 Madison Avenue, Southport, John Goodwin Funk, DOB 5/12/89, of 1053 Mississippi Drive, Tyndall AFB, Nicholas Sabastian Spriggs, DOB 7/30/94, of 156 Concord Circle, Panama City, Jason Alan Strickland, DOB 11/10/74, of 3325 E. Baldwin Road, Panama City, Jared Caldwell Coleman, DOB 3/14/85, of 2506 E. 37th Street, Panama City, Michael Wayne McCollum, DOB 3/7/68, of 1902 Kingslee Drive, Southport, Robert Bruce Trend, DOB 12/3/51, of 301 Lullwater Drive, Panama City Beach, and Arturo Palukaitis, DOB 8/11/60, of 306 Summerwood Drive, Panama City Beach.

Additional arrests and charges are pending computer forensic analysis. Agencies participating in the operation were the Attorney General’s Office, Bay County Sheriff’s Office, Department of Children and Families, Florida Department of Law Enforcement, Franklin County Sheriff’s Office, Gulf County Sheriff’s Office, Lynn Haven Police Department, Office of Special Investigations of the US Air Force, Panama City Police Department, Panama City Beach Police Department, Springfield Police Department, State Attorney’s Office, 14th Judicial Circuit, and the US Marshall’s Service.

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UPDATE: Nine Arrested in Multi-agency Operation
07/01/09 - 12:19 PM
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Nine alleged internet criminals are behind bars after the largest child pornography bust ever in Bay County, and the most warrants issued of this kind in one day in the entire state.

The Bay County Sheriff’s Office along with Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) and more than 10 other agencies served 16 search warrants Wednesday and Thursday for the case.  Of those, 9 were arrested and charged with possession of pictures or video depicting sexual performance of a child.

“Even criminals frown on this type of behavior,” said Sheriff Frank McKeithen as he described the alleged offenses, “This is some of the worst of the worst, and again we are not going to tolerate it.”

It took the cooperation of more than 50 officers from 15 local, state, and national law enforcement agencies. 

“Everybody was willing to come in early everybody was willing to stay late,” said Capt. Jimmy Stanford, “and there was nothing these guys weren’t willing to do.”

It also took the help of a technical support staff, mobile forensic units and new technology.

“Having the technical support on scene was invaluable,” said Stanford.

Officials are still investigating and expecting more arrests.  Some suspects have yet to be tracked down.

“A couple of cases that we served the search warrants there was actually an unsecure wireless router,” said FDLE special agents supervisor Mike Phillips, “Which means that we were at a residence where the suspect did not reside.”

He’s asking everyone to secure their connection to avoid its use by predators, by visiting www.secureflorida.org.

“I encourage everyone to do that so that you don’t have these types of people doing that on their wireless routers,” he said.

While officials deem this investigation successful so far, the work isn’t over for cases like them.  According to a recent FDLE operation, child pornography offenses were found on 14 thousand computers across the state.

“We hope people take note,” said McKeithen, “child pornography is not going to be accepted.”