SAN PABLO — A local resident has been arrested and charged with possessing more than 2,000 child pornography files, after police here learned that he had secretly returned to the Bay Area after a 2015 sexual abuse conviction, court records show.
Luis Brizuela-Navas, 25, was charged with possessing child pornography and failing to register as a sex offender, both felonies. When police came to arrest him at his home on Keller Avenue on Sept. 4, Brizuela-Navas allegedly barricaded the backdoor and refused to surrender. When he did eventually submit to arrest, police say they found he was in the process of erasing data from his iPhone.
Brizuela-Navas was convicted in 2015, in juvenile court, of sexually abusing a family member, authorities said in court filings. He was subsequently deported to El Salvador but prosecutors say that in 2022, he returned to the United States and began secretly living in San Pablo.
Brizuela-Navas was required to register as a sex offender and to submit to requirements intended to ensure he wouldn’t re-offend, including wearing a GPS monitoring device and staying in touch with a parole agent. None of this occurred, according to prosecutors.
Instead, authorities believe Brizuela-Navas began trading child sexual abuse material with “like-minded individuals,” using an encrypted messaging service. His alleged crimes were discovered after the social media platform Discord discovered suspicious uploads on Brizuela-Navas’ account and notified police, authorities said in court filings.
Thus far, investigators say they’ve found more than 2,000 videos depicting child pornography and/or sexual abuse on Brizuela-Navas’ phone, and that the investigation remains ongoing.
Brizuela-Navas is being held in the Contra Costa jail system without bail, and is set to be arraigned Wednesday afternoon. Prosecutors are asking a judge to keep him in custody, arguing that his alleged flouting of previous court orders indicates he will try to flee the area.
