A 60-year-old Cusseta man is facing a child sexual exploitation charge after Georgia Bureau of Investigation agents arrested him in Columbus this week. Thomas Clevenger was taken into custody and booked into the Chattahoochee County Jail before being transported to the Muscogee County Jail, where he remains held on one count of sexual exploitation of children.
The arrest traces back to an April tip. According to the wrbl.com, the GBI's Child Exploitation and Computer Crimes Unit received a request from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that month regarding the possession of child sexual abuse material. That tip eventually led investigators to Clevenger, resulting in his arrest in Columbus, Muscogee County. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation, in a press release dated October 29, described Clevenger as 60 years old and of Cusseta, Chattahoochee County, and said he was arrested and charged with one count of Sexual Exploitation of Children, as reported by gbi.georgia.gov.
As originally reported by Valdosta Today, Clevenger was arrested Tuesday in Columbus before being booked and then moved between the two county jails. Two local agencies assisted the state investigation: the Chattahoochee County Sheriff's Office and the Columbus Police Department both provided support, per the same wrbl.com report.
Part of a Broader Statewide Task Force Effort
The wrbl.com report notes that the investigation falls under the ongoing work of the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, which is housed within the GBI's Child Exploitation and Computer Crimes Unit and works to identify people involved in trading child sexual abuse material. The ICAC program itself was created by the U.S. Department of Justice in response to increasing internet use among children and teenagers, the proliferation of child sexual abuse material, and heightened online activity by predators seeking unsupervised contact with underage victims.
The task force's reach in Georgia has been substantial. As of November 2025, there had been more than 1,600 arrests in the state by the ICAC Task Force since it was established, according to investigative-gbi.georgia.gov. In February 2025, a coordinated statewide effort known as Operation Byte Down saw Georgia ICAC agencies execute 30 residential search warrants, actions that resulted in 17 arrests, per the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
Other Recent Georgia Arrests Tied to Similar Tips
Clevenger's case is one of several recent Georgia arrests that trace back to CyberTipline reports. In Roswell, a 30-year-old man named Ahmed Shengeb was arrested on six counts of sexual exploitation of children after a May 2025 CyberTip from NCMEC reached the GBI's Child Exploitation and Computer Crimes Unit, with the Roswell Police Department and the GBI's Atlanta Regional Investigative Office assisting, according to fox5atlanta.com.
Closer to Columbus, investigators in Muscogee County have made multiple arrests in similar cases this year. In April, a search warrant led to the arrest of Justin Venture-Aguilar, who was charged with five counts of child exploitation and taken to the Muscogee County Jail; Sheriff Greg Countryman said at the time that more charges were expected, wtvm.com reported. In June, another Muscogee County search warrant led to the arrest of John Paul Van Etten, who was charged with five counts of sexual exploitation of children involving suspected child sexual abuse material, per a separate wtvm.com report.
A case out of Candler County this month also illustrates the cross-state reach of these investigations. Nineteen-year-old Brayden Heath of Centreville, Virginia, was arrested in his home state on October 8 and later extradited to Georgia, where he was booked into the Candler County Jail on October 22, facing two counts of sexual exploitation of children, one count of first-degree cruelty to children and one count of grooming a minor for a sexual offense, according to wjcl.com.
National Numbers Show a Sharp Rise in Reports
The surge in local arrests mirrors a steep climb in reports nationwide. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children's CyberTipline received 1.4 million reports concerning online enticement in 2025, including more than 80,000 concerning sextortion, according to data published by missingkids.org. Reports of online enticement rose 158 percent compared with 2024, while reports of child sex trafficking jumped 323 percent over the same period, the organization's data shows.
The volume of material flagged has also grown. Reports submitted by electronic service providers in 2025 contained 61.8 million images, videos and other files tied to suspected child sexual exploitation incidents, and more than 400,000 of the year's CyberTipline reports involved a generative-artificial-intelligence nexus, per the missingkids.org data.
The GBI's Child Exploitation and Computer Crimes Unit accepts information about other cases by phone at 404-270-8870, and NCMEC's CyberTipline takes tips online at cybertipline.org. Anonymous tips to the GBI can also be submitted by calling 1-800-597-TIPS (8477), online, or through the See Something, Send Something mobile app.
