FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE	Monday, May 14, 2012
Docket #: 1:11-cr-00349-AWI

FRESNO, Calif. — United States Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner announced that Alfredo Marmolejo-Barrera, 44, of Corcoran, pleaded guilty to receiving a visual depiction of a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct.

According to the plea agreement, Marmolejo-Barrera received more than 600 images and videos depicting minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct on his computer. Many of the images depicted prepubescent minors.

Marmolejo-Barrera is scheduled to be sentenced on July 23, 2012 by Chief United States District Judge Anthony W. Ishii. He faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, a $250,000 fine, and a lifetime term of supervised release.

This case is the result of Operation Direct Connect, an extensive series of investigations by the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the King’s County Sheriff’s Office and District Attorney’s Office, the Madera County Sheriff’s Office, and the Fresno County Sheriff’s Office. Assistant United States Attorney Jeremy R. Jehangiri is prosecuting the case.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS) in the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov or call the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of California and ask to speak with the PSC coordinator.

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