Las Vegas, Nev. – A convicted sex offender who allegedly solicited sex from a person he thought was a 14-year-old girl and went to McCarran Airport to meet her arriving plane, has been charged with the commission of two federal child sex crimes, announced Daniel G. Bogden, United States Attorney for the District of Nevada.

"Persons who use interstate commerce, such as the Internet, to persuade and entice minors to have sex, will be investigated and prosecuted by the federal government," said U.S. Attorney Bogden. "The penalties are severe for these crimes, and there is no parole in the federal system."

Darryl Owen Walizer, 42, of Las Vegas, is charged with coercion and enticement of a minor and commission of a felony sex offense by an individual required to register as a sex offender. The two-count indictment was returned by the federal grand jury on March 16, 2010. He is scheduled to make an initial appearance in federal court on the charges on March 26, 2010, at 8:30 a.m.

According to the indictment, from about February 17 to March 12, 2010, Walizer, who has prior convictions for solicitation of a juvenile in Virginia and importuning in Ohio, and is required to register as a sex offender, used the Internet to coerce and entice a minor to engage in sexual activity. If convicted, Walizer faces 20 years to life in prison, and lifetime supervised release.

The case was initiated after local U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) authorities received information from the Garland, Texas Police Department that one of their detectives, who was acting in an undercover capacity as a 14-year-old female, was contacted online by Walizer. Walizer allegedly solicited the undercover detective for sex, and was arrested by ICE Agents at McCarran International Airport in Las Vegas on March 12, 2010, when he thought the girl would be arriving on a flight with her mother.

"Like an increasing number of child sex predators, the accused discover that there is no anonymity in cyberspace for those who use the Internet to stalk young victims," said Stephen Usiak, Acting Assistant Special Agent-in-Charge of the ICE Office of Investigations in Las Vegas. "ICE will continue to work closely with its federal and local law enforcement counterparts to protect our nation's children from sexual predators who mistakenly believe the Internet shields them from detection."

The case is being investigated by U.S. ICE and prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Nancy J. Koppe.

The case is 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 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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