Third child porn arrest, meth distributor convicted

Task force probe leads to 3rd arrest in 2 weeks

A man arrested for possessing child pornography made his initial court appearance Wednesday.

Robert Charles Bidlo, 76, of Great Falls, faces seven counts of sexual abuse of children.

According to court documents, Bidlo's former neighbor filed a complaint with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in 2012, claiming Bidlo attempted to "groom" her young daughter. The document says the complainant said Bidlo would try to get the child alone, and that he possessed at least one pornographic image of children on his computer. The report further states Bidlo told the neighbor the image was "research."

A Great Falls Police detective working with the Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) task force obtained a warrant to seize Bidlo's two laptops and turned them over to a Department of Homeland Security Agent for forensic analysis, the report says.

The document details what the agent found, including many incriminating saved internet search terms and 116 images in web browser cache files known by law enforcement agencies to be child pornography. The charging document says seven charges stem from the investigation.

Bidlo's bond was set at $50,000.

Federal jury convicts illegal alien for meth

A federal jury in Great Falls returned their verdict late Tuesday, convicting Eduardo Ocegueda-Ruiz, 30, of five crimes, according to a news release from the U.S. Department of Justice.

Ocegueda-Ruiz, of Los Angeles, was charged with conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine, possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine, possessing a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime, being a felon in possession of a firearm, and being an illegal alien in possession of a firearm. The defendant was one of 20 people named in a multi-count indictment as the perpetrators of a large-scale methamphetamine trafficking operation based in Great Falls dubbed "Operation Highline Crystal Highway."

According to the release and previous reports, the 19 co-defendants have all pleaded guilty to felony drugs and gun charges and are awaiting sentencing.