Nicaragua arrests US most wanted list suspect

Nicaraguan police said they had arrested an American teacher on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list suspected of child pornography offences, and handed him over to US officials for extradition.

The suspect, former Washington teacher Eric Justin Toth, was arrested on Saturday in Esteli, 150 km north of Managua, said police chief Aminta Granera.

Granera said Toth had been living under an assumed identity and had been caught with a fake US passport,a fake driving license, and fake bank and credit cards.

“In other words, he was an expert,” Granera told a news conference in Managua.

The police chief said that the suspect would be deported immediately, noting that he was in Nicaragua illegally.

Child pornography

He arrived in Nicaragua for the first time on October 24, 2012, left the country January 27 of this year and then re-entered the country February 12 with false identification belonging to another US national, Granera said.

The 31-year-old Toth taught at a private school in the US capital and had also worked as a camp counselor.

He has been on the run since the District of Columbia and Maryland issued arrest warrants in 2008.

Toth is alleged to have had a school camera in his possession in June 2008 that had pornographic images on it, the FBI said on its website.

He is also alleged to have produced child pornography in Maryland.

“Toth has often been described as a computer ‘expert’ and has demonstrated above-average knowledge regarding computers, the use of the Internet, and security awareness,” the FBI said.

It described Toth, who was added to the Most Wanted list in April 2012, as able to “integrate easily into socio-economic groups.”

A US federal law enforcement source said Toth had last been seen in 2009 at an Arizona homeless shelter where he had briefly lived and worked as a volunteer.

The shelter alerted authorities and Toth vanished, the source said.

A $100,000 FBI reward had been posted for information leading to his arrest.