West Texas man sentenced to 10 years in federal prison for possessing child pornography

LUBBOCK, Texas — A west Texas man was sentenced Friday by U.S. District Judge Sam R. Cummings to 10 years in federal prison, following his guilty plea in October 2014 to one count of possessing child pornography.

This sentencing was announced by John Parker, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas.  U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and Abilene Police Department investigated this case.

According to plea documents filed in the case, Reymundo Alejandro Sanchez, 21, of Abilene, Texas, used his cell phone to communicate with several people using a mobile application called Kik, as well as through Facebook and other means.  Many of those people identified themselves to Sanchez as minors.

Sanchez engaged many of those people in sexually oriented communication, which often included Sanchez sending one or more sexually explicit images of himself.  In exchange, Sanchez sometimes received images or videos of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct.  One example of such child pornography was a video that Sanchez received about April 30, 2014, which depicted a girl under age 18 engaged in sexually explicit conduct.

Sanchez’s pretrial release was revoked earlier this month when the court found that he had violated conditions of his release.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven M. Sucsy, Northern District of Texas, prosecuted this case.

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 12,000 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 2014, more than 2,000 individuals were arrested by HSI special agents under this initiative.

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. 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.

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.