Citizen Of El Salvador Sentenced To 6.5 Years For Travel In Interstate Commerce To Engage In Illicit Sexual Conduct With Two Minors

ASHEVILLE, N.C. – On Thursday, August 2, 2018, Jose Hector Alvarado, 44, a citizen of El Salvador who was residing in Cherokee County, N.C., was sentenced to 78 months in prison and 15 years of supervised release, for traveling in interstate commerce to engage in illicit sexual conduct with two minors, announced Andrew Murray, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina.  U.S. District Judge Max O. Cogburn, Jr. also ordered Alvarado to register as a sex offender after he is released from prison. 

According to filed court documents and court proceedings, on March 19, 2016, Alvarado drove a 13-year-old girl and a 14-year-old girl from Cherokee County, N.C., to Anderson, S.C. for the purpose of engaging in sex with the minors there.  Upon arriving in Anderson, Alvarado bought gifts for the minors and then rented a motel room.  Court records show that the minors contacted their parents and informed them of their whereabouts.  The parents alerted local law enforcement and the minors were rescued.

Alvarado pleaded guilty on October 26, 2017, to traveling in interstate commerce to engage in illicit sexual conduct.  He is currently in federal custody and will be transferred to the custody of the federal Bureau of Prisons upon designation of a federal facility.  All federal sentences are served without the possibility of parole. Alvarado will also be subject to deportation proceedings upon the completion of his federal sentence.

In making today’s announcement, U.S. Attorney Murray thanked ICE/Homeland Security Investigations and the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office for their investigation of this case.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Asheville prosecuted the case.