During their Oct. 14 meeting, Cascade County Commissioners will consider a memorandum of understanding with the Montana Department of Justice’s Division of Criminal Investigation and the Montana Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, to continue the joint operation.

The agreement formalizes the working relationship, which has been in place for some time, between the agencies and delineates responsibilities.

By signing the agreement, the Cascade County Sheriff’s Office agrees to remain on the ICAC task force to “vigorously and properly” investigate internet crimes against children, which also allows the county access to grant opportunities, joint operations, investigative support and specialized training opportunities.

The new agreement will be effective through Sept. 30, 2027.

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During their Oct. 8 work session, Undersheriff Scott Van Dyken said participation in the task force is no cost to the county and gives CCSO the ability to coordinate with other investigators statewide.

He said ICAC investigators go through thousands of images, and those generated by AI can still face criminal charges.

Smaller jurisdictions don’t have ICAC detectives so CCSO and the ICAC task force assists those agencies, he said.

“These predators, travel all around the country doing this,” Van Dyken said.

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Earlier this fall, a local woman received a letter in the mail with no return address that appeared to originate from Canada.

Inside the envelope were several pages of images of child sexual abuse material and a letter stating that the recipient had been hacked and the hackers had downloaded hundreds of child porn images that would be traced to the recipient unless they sent $2,500 via bitcoin.

A friend of The Electric’s received one such letter and helped her make a police report.

Anne Dormandy, crime information bureau chief for the Montana Department of Justice told The Electric in September that they were working with local law enforcement to investigate the letters.

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The letters were reported in multiple locations across Montana and in mid-September, six law enforcement agencies were involved, but Dormandy said she couldn’t say how many letters have been received since it was an ongoing investigation.

Wyoming also reported that people had received the letters.

A spokesperson for the FBI in Salt Lake City said she couldn’t confirm whether the agency was involved in the investigation, but a local recipient told The Electric that FBI agents had spoken to her about the letter.

Dormandy said that through the ICAC program, the state works with local law enforcement agencies that sign up as ICAC affiliates, receiving training and technology to work cases like these.

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It was through the ICAC program that Dormandy said DCI started getting reports of the letter being distributed across the state, Dormandy said.

The agency works with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which assists agencies nationwide by sending cyber tips that may come from citizens or tech companies reporting child sexual abuse material, she said.

Through that process, they can often determine if those images are new or if they’ve been reported to another agency nationwide.

Dormandy said they’ve been successful with ICAC cases and last year, there were 2,670 cyber tips for Montana that could be either a sender or a victim with an IP address in Montana.

DCI has two ICAC agents assigned to specifically work these types of cases and there are 36 agencies statewide signed up as ICAC affiliates, including CCSO and the Great Falls Police Department.

In August, the Montana Attorney General’s Office charged a Carter County man with three felony counts of sexual abuse of children for possession of explicit images and videos that depict a child under the age of 12.

In at least one of the counts, artificial intelligence was used to digitally alter the image of a Montana child, according to the state.

During the investigation, investigators found the man had captured images of a child from the parent’s public social media account and used AI to create manipulated content with the photos, producing AI child sexual abuse material.

Using AI to digitally alter images of children located on social media is becoming more common among child sex predators and the Legislature passed House Bill 82 earlier this year allowing for the prosecution of sex predators utilizing artificial intelligence to digitally alter images.

It’s an example of how technology is evolving, Dormandy said, and how Montana law enforcement is working to keep up.

At DCI, the computer and internet crimes unit assists with forensic analysis on child sexual abuse material cases.

Dormandy said they’ve made a lot of enhancements to that unit, including building a new space with improved technology to improve their response time to work such cases.

If Montana residents receive anything in the mail that they believe could be the child sexual abuse materials extortion letter, they don’t have to open it and can contact law enforcement to report it.

“Someone doesn’t have to open it and expose themselves to this image,” she said.

The Montana Department of Justice recommends that people slow down and think before sending any money, no matter the kind of scam. They can report digital scams through email to the FBI and also make check the DOJ’s office of consumer protection to see if they’ve seen a scam before.