Franklin County man sentenced to 20 years in federal prison for child exploitation violation

TEXARKANA, Texas – A Mount Vernon man has been sentenced to federal prison for child exploitation violations in the Eastern District of Texas, announced Acting U.S. Attorney Jay R. Combs.

Zachary Arzola, 28, pleaded guilty to travel with intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct with a minor and was sentenced to 240 months in federal prison by U.S. District Judge Robert W. Schroeder, III on June 5, 2025.

According to information presented in court, Arzola met a minor victim online in September 2022 when he was 26 years old, and the minor victim was 14 years old. Arzola communicated with the minor victim through social media applications and eventually traveled to Ohio to meet her in December 2022.  Once in Ohio, Arzola presented the victim’s family with an altered driver’s license to falsely represent that he was 16 years old.  After briefly returning to Texas, Arzola traveled back to Ohio in January 2023, picked the minor victim up from her home after her mother left for work, and transported the victim back to Texas with him.  Mount Vernon Police discovered the minor victim and Arzola at Arzola’s home shortly after they arrived in Texas.  Arzola admitted in court documents that he persuaded, induced, enticed, and coerced the 14-year-old victim to engage in prohibited sexual activity.

“With the scope and accessibility of social media applications, predators like Arzola are every parent’s worst nightmare,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Jay R. Combs.  “Arzola’s despicable crime took online predation to a whole new level.  He invented a new identity, lied about his age, and traveled to Ohio to meet the victim and her family.  He concocted a plan to kidnap the victim under the guise of elopement and acted on it.  The sentence he received should serve as a warning to other online predators that they will get caught, and they will face justice. Parents around our country should take note of the ease with which Arzola was able to exploit technology to lure an innocent child into danger.”

This case is 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 U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the 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 Texas Department of Public Safety – Criminal Investigations Division, the Mount Vernon Police Department, and the Clermont (Ohio) County Sheriff’s Office.  This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Austin Wells.

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