Albuquerque Man Pleads Guilty to Child Sexual Abuse and Child Pornography Charges
ALBUQUERQUE – Alfonso Navarrete, 43, of Albuquerque, N.M., pled guilty yesterday in federal court to child sexual abuse and child pornography charges under a plea agreement with the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
The FBI arrested Navarrete on June 22, 2017, on a criminal complaint charging him with possessing child pornography on June 16, 2017, in Bernalillo County, N.M. The FBI initiated an investigation into Navarrete in May 2017, after receiving information alleging that Navarrete allegedly sexually assaulted a minor in Ireland sometime between 2014 and 2015. During an interview of Navarrete on June 20, 2017, FBI Special Agents and Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office (BCSO) detectives found a computer and thumb drive belonging to Navarrete that contained child pornography.
During yesterday’s change of plea hearing, Navarrete pled guilty to a three-count felony information charging him with engaging in illicit sexual conduct in a foreign place, production of a visual depictions of a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct, and possession of visual depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct. In entering the guilty plea, Navarrete admitted that in June 2015, while temporarily living in Ireland, he engaged in illicit sexual conduct with a 12-year-old victim. Navarrete also admitted using a cellular phone to produce child pornography of a 14-year-old victim in May 2013, and transporting the images from Ohio to New Mexico sometime before his arrest in 2017. Finally, Navarrete admitted that from June 16, 2017 through June 20, 2017, he possessed approximately 730 images and seven videos of child pornography on a thumb drive.
At sentencing, Navarrete faces a maximum penalty of 30 years of imprisonment for engaging in illicit sexual conduct in a foreign place; a mandatory minimum penalty of 15 years and a maximum of 30 years in federal prison for producing child pornography; and a maximum of 20 years in federal prison for possessing child pornography. Navarrete faces up to a lifetime of supervised release following any prison sentence imposed, and will be required to register as a sex offender. Navarrete remains in custody pending a sentencing hearing, which has yet to be scheduled.
This case was investigated by the Albuquerque office of the FBI, the BCSO and the New Mexico Regional Computer Forensic Laboratory. Assistant U.S. Attorney Sarah Mease is prosecuting the case as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice (DOJ) to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by United States Attorneys’ Offices and DOJ’s Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, 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 http://www.justice.gov/psc/.
The case also was brought as a part of the New Mexico ICAC Task Force’s mission, which is to locate, track, and capture Internet child sexual predators and Internet child pornographers in New Mexico. There are 86 federal, state and local law enforcement agencies associated with the New Mexico ICAC Task Force, which is funded by a grant administered by the New Mexico Office of the Attorney General. Anyone with information relating to suspected child predators and suspected child abuse is encouraged to contact federal or local law enforcement.