Union County Man Arrested on Child Sexual Abuse Material* Charges

(COLUMBIA, S.C.) - July 10, 2020 - South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson announced the arrest of Colton Blake Zelano, 32, of Union, S.C., on five charges connected to the sexual exploitation of minors. Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force investigators with the Attorney General's Office made the arrest. Investigators with the United States Secret Service, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), U.S. Marshals Service and Union County Sheriff's Office, all also  members of the state's ICAC Task Force, assisted with the investigation and arrest.

Investigators received a CyberTipline report from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) which led them to Zelano. Investigators state Zelano possessed multiple files of child sexual abuse material.  

Zelano was arrested on July 8, 2020. He is charged with five counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, third degree (§16-15-410), a felony offense punishable by up to 10 years imprisonment on each count.

This case will be prosecuted by the Attorney General's Office.

Attorney General Wilson stressed all defendants are presumed innocent unless and until they are proven guilty in a court of law.

* Child sexual abuse material, or CSAM, is a more accurate reflection of the material involved in these heinous and abusive crimes. "Pornography" can imply the child was a consenting participant.  Globally, the term child pornography is being replaced by CSAM for this reason.