SPRINGFIELD, Mo. – David M. Ketchmark, Acting United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that a Springfield, Mo., man was sentenced in federal court today for transporting a minor across state lines to engage in criminal sexual activity.

Jorge Colorado-Arguello, 19, a citizen of Mexico residing in Springfield, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Richard E. Dorr to 10 years in federal prison without parole.

Colorado-Arguello, who pleaded guilty on May 23, 2012, drove from Springfield to Michigan on Oct. 2, 2011, where he picked up a 14-year-old minor he met on the Internet and brought her back to Missouri without the knowledge or consent of the minor’s parents. Springfield police officers located the child at Colorado-Arguello’s apartment the next day.

This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney James J. Kelleher. It was investigated by the Springfield, Mo., Police Department.

Project Safe Childhood
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys' Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc . For more information about Internet safety education, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc and click on the tab "resources."

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