South Texas man sentenced to nearly 19 years for receiving child pornography

MCALLEN, Texas – A south Texas man was sentenced Tuesday to nearly 19 years in federal prison for receiving child pornography, announced U.S. Attorney Kenneth Magidson, Southern District of Texas.

This investigation was conducted by U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).

Jose Alaniz-Allen, 23, of Mission, Texas, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Micaela Alvarez to serve 225 months in federal prison, taking into consideration various sentencing enhancements. The court noted the offense involved distributing images for the receipt, or expectation of receipt, of a thing of value, and that some minors depicted in the pornographic images were vulnerable victims under 5 years old.

In handing down the sentence, Judge Alvarez stated that this crime causes a great harm to the community, and individuals like Alaniz-Allen create a demand for this material. She further commented that she does not understand how anyone could gain satisfaction from watching an infant or a young child being sexually abused.

Alaniz-Allen will serve five years of supervised release after he completes his prison term, during which time he is not to reside or work near schools or places where children commonly gather.

During his supervised release, he also must have no direct contact with minors, will have restricted Internet access, and various other conditions. He will also be ordered to register as a sex offender. On Jan. 31, Alaniz-Allen pleaded guilty to the charges.

According to court documents, the investigation of Alaniz-Allen began Sept. 14, 2012. During an investigation into persons using the Internet to traffic in child pornography, HSI located and identified Alaniz-Allen as the owner of a computer related to distributing child pornography movies through a peer-to-peer computer network.

On Nov. 29, 2012, a search warrant was executed at Alaniz-Allen’s Mission residence, and his computer and various external storage media devices were seized. The forensic examination of the seized items revealed 23 movies of clearly young children engaged in sexually explicit conduct. The images included children under the age of 12 engaged in bondage and acts of violence. Some of the images are of known victims identified by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

Alaniz-Allen admitted he downloaded child pornography from the Internet, thereby receiving and possessing the child pornography found on his computer. He will remain in custody pending transfer to a U.S. Bureau of Prisons facility to be determined in the near future.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Kimberly Leo and Juan Villescas, Southern District of Texas, prosecuted the case.

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.