Seven Individuals Indicted And Arrested For Child Pornography

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico – On June 1 and 8, 2017, a federal grand jury in the District of Puerto Rico returned multiple indictments against 7 defendants charged with child pornography offenses, announced today Rosa Emilia Rodríguez-Vélez, United States Attorney for the District of Puerto Rico. Immigration and Customs Enforcement-Homeland Security Investigations (ICE-HSI) is in charge of the investigations.

The defendants and the charges they are facing are as follows:

1. Gabriel Cañas-Guerrero- possession of child pornography; videos and images depicting actual minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct.

2. Christian Joel Lorenzo-Feliciano- distribution and possession of child pornography. According to the indictment, Lorenzo-Feliciano distributed, via a file-sharing program with access to the internet, visual depictions of minors, including prepubescent minors, engaging in sexually explicit conduct.

3. Victor Gadiel Reyes-Rodríguez- possession of child pornography; images depicting actual minors, including prepubescent minors, engaging in sexually explicit conduct.

4. Ángel Luis Sepúlveda-Ramos- advertising and transportation of child pornography. Sepúlveda-Ramos knowingly used the Ares peer-to-peer software program to share one or more video and image files depicting minors, including prepubescent minors, engaging in sexually explicit conduct. The defendant also transported such child pornography material. On or about December 13, 2016, Sepúlveda-Ramos knowingly possessed at least 8 images and 17 videos depicting minors, including prepubescent minors, engaging in sexually explicit conduct.

5. Vidal Berríos-Dávila- receipt and distribution of child pornography. The defendant shared with the HSI Forensic Lab one video depicting an approximately 9 year-old female minor exposing her genitals and engaging in sexually explicit conduct with an adult male.

6. Francisco Javier Alicea-Báez- receipt and distribution of child pornography. On September 25, 2016, the defendant shared with the HSI Forensic Lab one video of an approximate duration of 5 minutes, depicting a male toddler approximately three to five years of age exposing his genitals and masturbating an adult male while sitting on his lap.

7. Martín Suárez-Imbert- advertising child pornography. The defendant logged into WhatsApp chat rooms entitled “Ok Man,” “Sin Reglas,” and “Chat Hot” to offer, send and receive videos and images of minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct.

All defendants are facing a Forfeiture Allegation, which includes all materials or property used, or intended to be used in the possession of child pornography, such as computers, cellular phones, external hard drives and memory sticks. If found guilty, the defendants face potential sentences of up to 20 years in prison for possession of child pornography, a mandatory minimum of 5 years up to a maximum of 20 years for receipt and distribution of child pornography, and mandatory minimum of 15 years up to a statutory maximum of 30 years for advertising child pornography.

“These defendants, who advertise, participate, distribute or exploit children to access child pornography work hard to evade law enforcement and disguise what they are doing,” said United States Attorney for the District of Puerto Rico, Rosa Emilia Rodríguez-Vélez. “Their sole purpose is to view children hurting for their own sexual satisfaction. We want them to know that they will face serious consequences for their actions. Our office will continue to vigorously prosecute this type of criminal activity to the fullest extent of the law.”

“HSI is seeing a growing trend where children are being enticed, tricked and coerced online by adults to produce sexually explicit material of themselves,” said Orlando Baez, deputy special agent in charge of HSI San Juan. “While we will continue to prioritize the arrest of child predators, we cannot arrest our way out of this problem: education is the key to prevention. These indictments represent a strong coordinated strike – by Homeland Security and the U. S. Attorney’s Office – against child pornography and those who allegedly seek to harm our most vulnerable citizens, our young children. Clearly, this criminal activity has reached epidemic proportions and ICE HSI will continue to partner here and across jurisdictions to target those adults who egregiously violate the children of our communities.”

The cases are being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Elba Gorbea and Ginette Milanés, and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Cristina Caraballo, under the supervision of AUSA Marshal Morgan, Chief of the Crimes Against Children and Human Trafficking Unit. Indictments contain only charges and are not evidence of guilt. Defendants are presumed to be innocent until and unless proven guilty.

These cases were brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse, launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ offices and 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.projectsafechildhood.gov.