Lorton man sentenced to 18 years in prison for sexually exploiting children on Snapchat

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – A Lorton man was sentenced today to 18 years in prison for sexually exploiting minor girls as young as nine years old and enticing them to create and send him sexually explicit images and videos of themselves on Snapchat.

According to court documents, between at least May 1, 2021, and May 8, 2024, Jose Alejandro Belmonte Cardozo, 31, used Snapchat to find minor girls and entice them to send him child sexual abuse material (CSAM). Belmonte Cardozo created different Snapchat accounts depending on the scheme he used to obtain CSAM from the minors.

For example, Belmonte Cardozo used a particular account to catfish two 15-year-old girls, convincing them that he was a teenage boy. He sent the minors pictures that he claimed depicted him, but which actually depicted a boy who appeared to be approximately 16 years old. Belmonte Cardozo persuaded the minors to send him CSAM, which he surreptitiously recorded on a second cell phone to avoid the in-app notification. He then saved the recordings to a password-protected hidden folder on his cell phone.

Belmonte Cardozo used a second account to convince other minors to send him CSAM in exchange for admission to a phony group chat he purported to administer. Once Belmonte Cardozo obtained CSAM from the minors, he enticed them to send him additional images and videos.

Belmonte Cardozo amassed more than 1,000 images and videos of children engaged in sexually explicit conduct on five different electronic devices. On May 8, 2024, he transported two cellphones containing approximately 600 sexually explicit images and videos of minors, into the United States at Dulles International Airport.

Erik S. Siebert, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, and Christopher Heck, Acting Special Agent in Charge of Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations (ICE HSI) Washington, D.C., made the announcement after sentencing by U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection assisted in the investigation.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Lauren Halper and Zoe Bedell prosecuted the case.

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 U.S. Attorney’s 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.

A copy of this press release is located on the website of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia. Related court documents and information are located on the website of the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia or on PACER by searching for Case No. 1:24-cr-125.