Gulfport Man Sentenced to 87 Months for Possession of Videos and Images of Minors Engaging in Sexually Explicit Conduct

Gulfport, MS – A Gulfport, Mississippi man was sentenced yesterday to 87 months in prison, followed by twenty-five years of supervised release, for possessing images and videos of minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct.
 

In 2020, Homeland Security Investigations (“HSI”) in Gulfport learned that Nicholas Snyder, a now 29-year-old male, was in possession of images and videos of minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct. In May 2020, HSI and the Mississippi Attorney General’s Office, Cybercrime Division, seized the defendant’s cellphone.

A forensic examiner with the Mississippi Attorney General’s Office, Cybercrime Division, conducted a forensic extraction on those devices. The evidence showed Snyder possessed multiple images of children engaging in sexually explicit conduct, including children under the age of five years old.

Acting U.S. Attorney Patrick A. Lemon of the Southern District of Mississippi and Special Agent in Charge Eric P. DeLaune of Homeland Security Investigations made the announcement.
 

The case was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations and the Mississippi Attorney General’s Office, Cybercrime Division.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Lee Smith and Andrea Jones prosecuted the case.
 

This case was 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 the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (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.