North Port Registered Sex Offender Indicted For Attempting To Transfer Obscene Materials To A Minor

Ocala, Florida – United States Attorney Roger B. Handberg announces the return of a two-count indictment charging Imran Siddiqi (40, North Port) with attempting to transfer obscene material to a minor and committing a felony offense involving a minor as a registered sex offender. If convicted on all counts, Siddiqi faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in federal prison, including a 10-year minimum mandatory sentence. 

According to court documents, between January 31 and March 6, 2024, Siddiqi engaged in a conversation with an undercover law enforcement officer who was posing online as a 13-year-old girl. During the conversation, Siddiqi repeatedly described his desire to have sex with the child, sending multiple explicit photographs of himself and other explicit images to the undercover officer. Siddiqi is a registered sex offender. According to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement Sex Offender Predator System, Siddiqi was convicted in 2016 of traveling to meet a minor to commit an unlawful sexual offense.

An indictment is merely a formal charge that a defendant has committed one or more violations of federal criminal law, and every defendant is presumed innocent unless, and until, proven guilty.

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 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 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.

This case was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations. It will be prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Sarah Janette Swartzberg.