Greensboro man faces 10 felony counts in child exploitation case

A Greensboro man is facing 10 felony counts of second-degree sexual exploitation of a minor after a months-long investigation by the Invictus Task Force ended with a search warrant in Guilford County.

Authorities identified the suspect as Joshua Paul Dix, 20, of Greensboro. The case began in January 2026 after investigators received a CyberTip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, a reminder that a report submitted online can become the starting point for a local criminal case in Guilford County.

On May 7, members of the Invictus Task Force executed a search warrant with help from the Greensboro Police Department Violent Criminal Apprehension Team and the Guilford County Sheriff’s Office. Dix was taken into custody and booked into the Randolph County Detention Center without bond. He was scheduled to make his first appearance Friday in Randolph County District Court.

The charges carry serious weight because each count represents a separate felony allegation. Under North Carolina law, second-degree sexual exploitation of a minor covers conduct involving sexual material that depicts a minor, including recording, duplicating, distributing, transporting, exhibiting, receiving, selling, purchasing, exchanging or soliciting such material when the person knows the character or content of the material.

The investigation also highlights how child-protection cases now move through digital evidence as much as through physical searches. Files, accounts and device data often have to be examined carefully before prosecutors move forward, which is one reason a cyber tip can take months to turn into an arrest. In this case, investigators worked through that process before acting on the warrant.

The Invictus Task Force is a regional effort involving Randolph, Alamance, Davidson, Forsyth and Rockingham counties, along with the Liberty Police Department, the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation and Homeland Security. Randolph County officials have described it as a “force multiplier” built to fight internet crimes against children, sexual abuse, trafficking and exploitation. The project says Invictus is Latin for unconquered, reflecting its focus on defending childhood itself.

The broader reporting system behind the case is enormous. NCMEC says its CyberTipline is the nation’s centralized reporting system for online exploitation of children, and its 2024 data show 20.5 million reports of suspected child sexual exploitation. In Guilford County, this case shows how those reports can trigger coordinated local enforcement and a long forensic review before charges are filed.