SAN PABLO – An area resident was arrested and charged with possession of greater than 2,000 files containing child pornography after police learned he had secretly returned to the Bay Area following a 2015 sex abuse conviction, court records show.
Luis Brizuela-Navas, 25, was charged with possession of kid pornography and failure to register as a sex offender, each felonies. When police attempted to arrest him at his San Pablo home on Keller Avenue on Sept. 4, Brizuela-Navas allegedly barricaded the back door and refused to give up. When he finally submitted to arrest, police found him within the strategy of deleting data from his iPhone.
Brizuela-Navas was convicted in juvenile court in 2015 of sexually abusing a member of the family, authorities said in court documents. He was subsequently deported to El Salvador, but prosecutors said he returned to the United States in 2022 and commenced living in San Pablo.
If Brizuela-Navas lived within the United States, he would have needed to register as a sex offender and comply with conditions designed to make sure he wouldn’t reoffend, including wearing a GPS monitoring device and having contact with a probation officer. Neither of those happened, based on prosecutors.
Instead, authorities imagine Brizuela-Navas began sharing child sexual abuse material with “like-minded individuals” through an encrypted messaging service. His alleged crimes were discovered after the social media platform Discord spotted suspicious uploads on Brizuela-Navas' account and notified police, authorities said in court documents.
So far, investigators have found greater than 2,000 videos depicting child pornography and/or sexual abuse on Brizuela-Navas' cellphone. The investigation is ongoing, authorities said.
Brizuela-Navas is being held within the Contra Costa Jail without bail and is scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday afternoon. Prosecutors have asked a judge to maintain him in custody because his alleged disregard for previous court orders suggests he’ll attempt to flee the realm.
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