Former Police Officer Pleads Guilty To Attempted Online Enticement To Engage In Sexual Activity With A Minor

Jacksonville, Florida – United States Attorney Roger B. Handberg announces that Alejandro Carmona-Fonseca (48, Green Cove Springs) has pleaded guilty to attempted online enticement of a minor to engage in sexual activity. Carmona-Fonseca faces a minimum mandatory penalty of 10 years, and up to life, in federal prison. He has agreed to pay restitution to all of the victims of his offenses and faces a potential life term of supervised release. The court previously ordered Carmona-Fonseca detained pending the outcome of this case. Carmona-Fonseca had been employed as an officer with the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office (JSO).

According to the plea agreement, this case began when the Clay County Sheriff’s Office (CCSO) received a report from a local gym about a gym member, Carmona-Fonseca, sending a nude photo to another gym member, who was a minor child – Minor Victim 1 (MV1). During an interview with CCSO, MVI explained that Carmona-Fonseca had requested MV1’s Snapchat account and MV1 provided it to him. MV1 told Carmona-Fonseca he was in high school. Carmona-Fonseca sent images and videos with his genitals exposed to MV1. At one point, Carmona-Fonseca sent MV1 a picture of himself in his police uniform and wrote “you can call me your police daddy.” At times, Carmona-Fonseca asked MV1 for photos of MV1 with his shirt off. 

With the consent of MV1 and his parents, CCSO assumed MV1’s identity over Snapchat, and on March 3, 2022, a Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Task Force Officer (TFO)/CCSO detective began communicating with Carmona-Fonseca using MV1’s Snapchat account. The TFO confirmed that Carmona-Fonseca was friends with MV1 and observed that Carmona-Fonseca’s location services were turned on in Snapchat. The TFO observed Carmona-Fonseca’s location numerous times during the chat. Carmona-Fonseca’s location showed him next to a JSO substation on numerous occasions, the areas where he worked as a patrol officer, near his residence, and near the gym he frequented. The TFO communicated with Carmona-Fonseca on March 3 and 4, 2022. During those conversations, Carmona-Fonseca sent a video of himself in his police uniform and another in which he was nude. Carmona-Fonseca also made several requests for nude videos of MV1 flexing and said that everything stayed between them, and that because it was Snapchat, it would disappear.

This case was investigated by the Clay County Sheriff’s Office and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). It is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Ashley Washington. The forfeiture is being handled by Assistant United States Attorney Mai Tran.

It is another case 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.justice.gov/psc.