Alexandria man sentenced to 17 years for production of child pornography

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – A 31-year-old Alexandria man was sentenced Friday to 204 months in prison for production of child pornography, enticing minors to engage in sexually-explicit conduct online and recording the acts. This case was investigated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the Fairfax County Police Department.

Lucas Aronson, 31, of Alexandria, was also ordered to serve a lifetime of supervised release, register as a sex offender upon release from prison and pay a total of $20,000 in restitution to his victims.

Aronson pleaded guilty Aug. 23. According to admissions made in connection with his plea, Aronson posed as a minor girl while using video- and text-based chat websites to engage with minor girls online. Aronson engaged in sexually explicit chats and enticed some of the minors to engage in sexually explicit activity on web camera and recorded the videos. He maintained the videos on a thumb drive that was found in his residence. In January 2015, Aronson was arrested after streaming a video of a toddler-aged female engaged in sexually explicit conduct with an adult male on a chat website.

This investigation was conducted under HSI’s Operation Predator, an international initiative to protect children from sexual predators. Since the launch of Operation Predator in 2003, HSI has arrested more than 14,000 individuals for crimes against children, including the production and distribution of online child pornography, traveling overseas for sex with minors, and sex trafficking of children. In fiscal year 2015, nearly 2,400 individuals were arrested by HSI special agents under this initiative and more than 1,000 victims identified or rescued.

HSI encourages the public to report suspected child predators and any suspicious activity through its toll-free Tip Line at 1-866-DHS-2-ICE or by completing its online tip form. Both are staffed around the clock by investigators. From outside the U.S. and Canada, callers should dial 802-872-6199. Hearing impaired users can call TTY 802-872-6196.

Suspected child sexual exploitation or missing children may be reported to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, an Operation Predator partner, via its toll-free 24-hour hotline, 1-800-THE-LOST.

For additional information about wanted suspected child predators, download HSI’s Operation Predator smartphone app or visit the online suspect alerts page.