SPANISH NATIONAL WHO TRAVELED TO PENNSYLVANIA TO ENGAGE IN SEXUAL CONDUCT WITH CHILD SENTENCED

Martin C. Carlson, United States Attorney for the Middle District of Pennsylvania and John P. Kelleghan, Special Agent in Charge of the ICE Office of Investigations in Philadelphia,announced that Eduardo Sanchez-Moragues, age 28, of Barcelona, Spain, was sentenced today by United States District Court Judge A. Richard Caputo for traveling interstate and foreign commerce with the intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct. Judge Caputo sentenced Sanchez-Moragues to a 20-year term of imprisonment. He further ordered that Sanchez-Moragues serve a lifetime term of supervised release.

According to U.S. Attorney Carlson, this case arose out of an investigation by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in February 2004 into the receipt, possession, and interstate transportation of child pornography. During the course of the investigation, agents identified co-defendant Daniel Witmer, as having been involved in the trading of pornographic images of children. An interview with Witmer, and the examination of this computer confirm this, and also depicted images of Sanchez-Moragues engaging in sexual activity with Witmer’s child. The investigation further revealed that Witmer and Sanchez-Moragues communicated about Sanchez-Moragues’ intention to travel to the United States.

Sanchez-Moragues was arrested by the Spanish National Police in Barcelona, Spain on May 25, 2005 on unrelated charges. On January 16, 2009, he was arrested on the instant federal offense and extradited to the United States.

Witmer was federally sentenced in May 2006 to a 240- month term of imprisonment on sexual abuse of children and aid and abetting charges. In June 2006, Witmer was sentenced to 10 to 20 years’ imprisonment in Schuylkill County Court of Common Pleas in Pottsville, Pennsylvania, on related charges, to run consecutively to the sentenced imposed on the federal offence.

“Traveling across an Ocean to sexually exploit a child whose father was complicit, has to be one of the most depraved and heinous crimes a human being could conceive,” said John P. Kelleghan, Special Agent in Charge of the ICE Office of Investigations in Philadelphia. “Let this case be a message to all predators that ICE and our international law enforcement partners will scour the globe to ensure they are held accountable for their actions here in the United States in order to protect the most vulnerable population, our children."

This case has been investigated by the ICE, Pennsylvania State Police, and the Spanish National Police and prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Gordon A. Zubrod 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 United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.

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