Orlando Man Sentenced To 20 Years In Prison For Producing Child Pornography

Orlando, Florida – U.S. District Judge Paul G. Byron has sentenced Luis Serrano (24, Orlando) to 20 years in federal prison, followed by 15 years of supervised release, for producing child pornography. The Court also ordered him to register as a sex offender upon his release. Serrano pleaded guilty on August 8, 2016.

According to court documents, Serrano enticed and persuaded a minor victim to engage in sexual activity for the purpose of producing visual depictions of the conduct beginning when the child was 14 years old. Serrano initially befriended the girl on a chat website when she was 13 and, during the next two years, he persuaded and directed her to engage in sexual activity during live video chats that he recorded. He also persuaded the child to record herself engaging in sex acts and to send the images to him over the Internet. When the victim was 16 years old, Serrano convinced her to meet him in person to engage in sex acts, and he took explicit photographs of the conduct. Serrano distributed the pornographic images of the victim to as many as 10 individuals.

On March 4, 2016, federal agents executed a search warrant at Serrano’s home and located the images of the victim on Serrano’s electronic devices. Agents also located 340 images and 175 videos depicting the sexual abuse and exploitation of other minors, many of which depicted the sexual abuse of infants and toddlers. Serrano told agents that he had obtained and shared these illicit images with others on the Internet through a file-sharing program. 

“The most important thing a society can protect is our children,” said Susan L. McCormick, special agent in charge of HSI Tampa. “HSI special agents utilized all of our investigative techniques and authorities to save a young child from further victimization and now this predator will be behind bars unable to harm other children.”

This case was investigated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations. It was prosecuted by Special Assistant United States Attorney Christina R. Downes and Assistant United States Attorney Karen L. Gable.

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 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.