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February 12, 2013Lexington, KY, United StatesChild Exploitation

Kentucky man sentenced to 14 years in prison for distributing child pornography

LEXINGTON, Ky. — A local man who posted child pornography videos on the Internet for others to download was sentenced Tuesday to 14 years in federal prison. This sentence resulted from an investigation conducted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the FBI, and the Kentucky State Police.

Juan Francisco Reyes-Ramos, 31, was sentenced Feb. 12 by U.S. Senior District Judge Joseph M. Hood in the Eastern District of Kentucky for distributing child pornography. Judge Hood enhanced Reyes-Ramos' sentence because he possessed images of child pornography that were sadistic and/or violent.

According to court documents, in May 2012, a detective with the Kentucky State Police located child pornography videos available for download on the Internet. The videos contained images of prepubescent children engaged in sexually explicit conduct. The detective found that the videos were posted from an Internet Protocol (IP) address belonging to Reyes-Ramos' computer.

When investigators searched Reyes-Ramos' home they found more than 3,000 child pornography images on his computer. Many of the images showed adults engaged in sexually explicit conduct with children.

Under federal law, Reyes-Ramos will have to serve at least 85 percent of his prison sentence. He pleaded guilty to the charges in November.

This investigation was part of Operation Predator, a nationwide HSI initiative to protect children from sexual predators, including those who travel overseas for sex with minors, Internet child pornographers, criminal alien sex offenders and child sex traffickers. HSI encourages the public to report suspected child predators and any suspicious activity through its toll-free hotline at 1-866-347-2423 or by completing its online tip form. Both are staffed around the clock by investigators.

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, 1-800-843-5678.

HSI is a founding member and current chair of the Virtual Global Taskforce, an international alliance of law enforcement agencies and private industry sector partners working together to prevent and deter online child sexual abuse.

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