Suspected Southern California ‘sex traveler’ arrested boarding flight at LAX
LOS ANGELES — Special agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) arrested a Simi Valley man Thursday night on federal child pornography charges as he prepared to depart for Vietnam to allegedly visit underage girls he communicated with on social media.
Ronald Carey Shirley, 64, was taken into custody at Los Angeles International Airport as he boarded a Philippines Air flight. The former accountant is charged in a criminal complaint with attempting to produce and attempting to receive child pornography. The charges stem from online communications of a sexual nature the defendant had with underage females in the Philippines and Vietnam, including some messages in which he allegedly solicited sexually explicit images of the victims.
“These allegations should serve as a warning to sexual predators who mistakenly believe they can escape justice by exploiting children overseas,” said Claude Arnold, special agent in charge for HSI Los Angeles. “Boarding a plane to a foreign land is no protection. There can be no place for the abuse of foreign children by our citizens, and HSI will seek to vindicate the rights of those victims no matter how destitute they are or how far they live from our shores.”
Shirley is expected to make his initial appearance in federal court Friday afternoon. The charges carry a maximum penalty of up to 60 years in prison. The case is being prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California.
HSI’s probe into Shirley began after special agents received a lead from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) about suspected child sexual exploitation activity linked to a social media account belonging to the defendant. Subsequently, HSI special agents obtained a search warrant for that account and discovered recent online conversations between the defendant and three underage females, one in the Philippines and two in Vietnam. Based on the exchanges, investigators believe the girls range in age from 11 to 16.
According to the complaint affidavit, the social media interactions with the three underage girls have been occurring for at least seven months. In an exchange with a 16-year-old victim in the Philippines, Shirley told her he wanted to have sex with her and promised to wire her money if she sent him sexually explicit images of herself. Investigators discovered multiple sexually explicit photos of the victim in the defendant’s social media account. Additionally, wire transfer records obtained by investigators indicate Shirley sent the victim five payments totaling approximately 12,000 Philippine pesos, the equivalent of about $270 U.S. In a message sent Dec. 31, Shirley asked the victim - “At 16, are you mentally ready to have sex?”
Databases queried by HSI show the defendant has traveled to Taiwan, the Philippines and China in the last five years. HSI’s investigation into the Shirley’s activities is ongoing, including the analysis of additional forensic evidence. Authorities are seeking to determine if there are additional unidentified victims.
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