Sarasota child porn suspect arrested in Mexico after missing court hearing in 2017
SARASOTA, Fla. - A Sarasota child porn case was left in limbo after a suspect didn't appear for a court hearing back in 2017. Five years later, federal authorities were able to track him down in Mexico and arrest him.
On Saturday, 65-year-old John Pyle was booked into Miami-Dade Corrections and will be extradited back to Sarasota. Federal officials said they "developed information that Pyle was in Mexico in the small town of Merida, just outside Cancun," but didn't specify how they learned he left the country. US Marshals worked with Mexican authorities to arrest Pyle.
They said he had no legal status to stay in Mexico. He was arrested and deported from Mexico to Miami on Saturday afternoon.
Back in June 2016, Sarasota detectives received tips from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, indicating that Pyle's uploaded child porn imagery. A search warrant was obtained for his apartment on South Osprey Avenue.
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They obtained Pyle's computer and cell phone and found: two bondage images of child pornography, 15 images of sexual conduct, and 31 child pornography images with no sexual conduct.
Police said they were not involved in the weekend arrest of Pyle in Mexico.