The head of federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement for South Florida has been placed on paid administrative leave, as federal agents investigate four images of child pornography he allegedly received on his home computer via an AOL e-mail account, reports the Miami Herald. Broward Sheriff's Office and FBI investigators seized Anthony Mangione's home computer after obtaining a search warrant based on an alert from AOL, Mangione's Internet service provider.
Sources said Mangione, 50, who has headed the ICE regional office since 2007, was not believed to have received the pictures in connection with any ICE investigation. AOL, which monitors the distribution of child pornography by its users, alerted a national nonprofit resource center about the images allegedly sent to Mangione's computer in recent weeks. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children then forwarded the information to a multi-agency task force that investigates child-porn distribution over the Internet. Ingthe past decade, ICE has aggressively targeted child pornography, with Mangione frequently speaking out against “predators'' who illegally share images through their computers. ICE also investigates migrant smuggling, illegal weapons exports, terrorism and drug trafficking.