November 24, 2008

Laredo man receives 7½-year prison sentence for possessing child pornography

LAREDO, Texas - A local man was sentenced Monday to 7½ years in federal prison for possessing child pornography. This sentence was announced by acting U.S. Attorney Tim Johnson, Southern District of Texas, and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Special Agent in Charge Jerry Robinette.

Roger Garcia, 47, was sentenced Nov. 24 to 90 months in prison by U.S. District Judge Micaela Alvarez. After he completes his prison sentence, Garcia will also be subject to a 10-year term of supervised release. While on supervised release the court ordered Garcia to comply with the following special conditions: he must register as a sex offender; he will be prohibited from using the Internet; and he is prohibited from working directly with anyone under 18 years old.

Garcia was indicted July 8 and was arrested three days later. He has been in custody since he pleaded guilty to the charges in August.

The charges against Garcia stemmed from an undercover online investigation initiated by ICE. The investigation indentified Garcia as a frequent visitor to child pornography websites that ultimately led ICE to search his residence and seize his home computers.

A computer forensic analysis revealed Garcia possessed more than 30 videos of men engaged in sexual acts or lascivious activity with children ranging in age from 5 to about 14 years old. The videos were sent to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) in an attempt to identify known victims in the videos. NCMEC identified known victims in the videos that were discovered in Garcia's computer.

This arrest is part of Operation Predator, a nationwide ICE 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. Since Operation Predator was launched in July 2003, ICE agents have arrested more than 11,600 individuals, including 1,160 in Texas.

ICE encourages the public to report suspected child predators and any suspicious activity through its toll-free hotline at 1-866-DHS-2ICE. This hotline is staffed around the clock by investigators.

Suspected child sexual exploitation or missing children may be reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, an Operation Predator partner, at 1-800-843-5678 or www.cybertipline.com.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Brigida Pirra, Southern District of Texas, prosecuted this case.

-- ICE --

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was established in March 2003 as the largest investigative arm of the Department of Homeland Security. ICE is comprised of five integrated divisions that form a 21st century law enforcement agency with broad responsibilities for a number of key homeland security priorities.

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