A 40-year-old Virginia man who officials say operates a website that encourages the sexual exploitation of children was arrested at Denver International Airport Monday, after allegedly kidnapping a 12-year-old California girl. 

Fresno County Sheriff Margaret Mimms said in a press conference Saturday that Nathan D. Larson of Catlett, Va., has been charged with five felony crimes including kidnapping, child abduction, soliciting child pornography from a minor and meeting a child with the intention of sex. 

Officials from the sheriff’s office and Fresno Police Department learned about the girl’s disappearance on Monday after the family reported her missing. 

Investigators learned that Larson and the girl had been in contact with each other through social media since the middle of October, Mimms said. 

During the course of there conversations, officials say, Larson convinced the girl through manipulation and grooming to send pornographic images of herself.

With help from the Central California Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force, Fresno Airport Police and Homeland Security investigations, officials learned Larson boarded a flight at Fresno Yosemite International Airport with a young girl headed for Washington D.C.

The flight had a scheduled layover in Denver and California officials contacted a Denver Police officer who is assigned to a local FBI Task Force to find and arrest Larson. 

When the flight arrived in Denver, agents spotted Larson and brought him into custody on charges of harboring a minor. 

The girl was recovered uninjured and reunited with her family Monday night. 

Officials learned that Larson persuaded the girl to sneak out of her house around 2 a.m. and used a ride share app to to head to the airport. 

Upon their arrival, Larson made the girl wear a long-hair wig and told her to act as if she was unable to speak, Mimms said. 

On Thursday, officials from the Fauquier County Sheriff’s Office in Virginia, the Northern Virginia and District of Columbia ICAC and HSI investigators acquired Larson’s electronic devices while executing a search warrant at his house in Catlett.

Larson’s father, Arthur Larson, 69, was arrested during the search after he assaulted an HSI agent, but he was later released on bond, Mimms said. 

Through his electronic devices, officials say, they discovered that Larson is a white supremacist and operates a website encouraging the exploration of children. 

In 2017, Larson ran as an Independent to represent the 31st District in the Virginia House of Delegates, but lost.

In 2008, while Larson was living in Boulder, Mimms says he was arrested after sending a message to the U.S. Secret Service threatening to kill then President George W. Bush. 

He was sentenced to 16 months in federal prison, but only served 14 months of his sentence. 

Mimms said they believe Larson has victimized other children in the past but those incidents may have gone unreported due to the “sophisticated nature of how (he) groomed this Fresno girl.”

Officials are encouraging anyone who might have information on inappropriate contact with Larson to call Lt. Brandon Pursell at 559-600-8029 or email at Brandon.pursell@fresnosheriff.org, or Sgt. Chad Stokes at 559-600-8144 or email chad.stokes@fresnosheriff.org

Larson is currently being held at the Denver County Jail and FCSO will ask him to be extradited at his initial hearing on Dec. 24, Mimms said.