West Texas man sentenced to more than 7 years in federal prison for possessing prepubescent child pornography

LUBBOCK, Texas — A west Texas man, who admitted possessing prepubescent child pornography, was sentenced Friday to more than seven years in federal prison, announced Acting U.S. Attorney John Parker of the Northern District of Texas.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) investigated.

Roberto Garcia, 55, from Lubbock, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Sam R. Cummings to 87 months in federal prison. Garcia, who has been on bond, was ordered to surrender to the Bureau of Prisons on May 15.

According to plea documents filed in the case, Garcia used a computer at his residence to, among other things, search for images and videos of child pornography. In the course of his searches, Garcia located, downloaded and viewed numerous images and videos constituting child pornography. He saved these images onto the computer's hard disk drive. Some of the numerous images of child pornography that Garcia saved involved prepubescent minors.

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.