DC Man Arrested at San Francisco Airport, Charged in Distribution of Child Pornography

             WASHINGTON –Hershel Andrew Green, III,  42, of the District of Columbia, was arrested Aug. 24 at San Francisco International Airport and charged in a complaint filed in U.S. District Court with possessing and distributing child sexual abuse materials (CSAM), announced U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro.

             Hershel is expected to make his first court appearance in U.S. District Court today in San Francisco.

             As part of the investigation, Green was identified after law enforcement agents discovered electronic communications between Green and another individual related to the sexual abuse of children. Green distributed and received images and videos that included the sexual abuse of prepubescent children.

             This case is being brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse, launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. 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.justice.gov/psc.       

             This case was investigated by the FBI Washington Field Office and Metropolitan Police Department’s Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force. The task force is composed of FBI agents, along with other federal agents and detectives from northern Virginia and the District of Columbia. The task force is charged with investigating and bringing federal charges against individuals engaged in the exploitation of children and those engaged in human trafficking.  

             The matter is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Janani Iyengar.

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