Robert
Mullen, 60, a former officer with the Lawton, Okla., Police Department who now
lives in Albuquerque, was arrested Tuesday morning by special agents with
Homeland Security Investigations on a criminal complaint charging him with
receiving and possessing visual depictions of minors engaged in sexually
explicit conduct.
According
to the criminal complaint, a special agent with the New Mexico Attorney
General’s Office in August identified an IP address that was being used to
share files containing child pornography, and a subsequent investigation found
that the IP address was subscribed to Mullen at a residence on Albuquerque’s
West Side, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
On
Dec. 11, HSI agents, Albuquerque Police Department officers and other agencies
participating in the New Mexico Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force
executed a state search warrant at Mullen’s home and seized a computer and
computer-related media, federal prosecutors said.
If
convicted of the charges in the criminal complaint, Mullen could face a federal
prison term of between five and 20 years and would be required to register as a
sex offender, according to a news release