January 25, 2008

Indiantown man sentenced today to 90 months in prison for conspiracy to produce child pornography following an ICE and Martin County Sheriff's Office investigation

FT PIERCE, FL- Leonard Addison Parks Jr., 24, of Indiantown, Florida, was sentenced here in the Southern District of Florida to serve 90 months in prison for his involvement in child pornography in which video clips of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct were produced, Assistant Attorney General Alice S. Fisher of the Criminal Division, Julie L. Myers, Assistant Secretary for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and U.S. Attorney R. Alexander Acosta for the Southern District of Florida announced today.

Parks, who cooperated with the government, and two other Indiantown, Fla. men - Randy Charles Harris, 37, and Salvador Pascual Aguirre, 23, - were previously charged in a superseding indictment arising out of their respective criminal involvement in the case.  Parks and Harris were charged with conspiring to produce the illegal video clips between January 2005 and June 2007. Aguirre was charged with receiving or attempting to receive child pornography from Harris during that same time period.  Parks, who cooperated with investigators, pleaded guilty on Oct. 30, 2007, to one count of conspiracy to use a minor to engage in sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of producing a visual depiction of such conduct.

Harris and Aguirre were both sentenced to prison earlier this month for their involvement in the case. Harris received a 30-year sentence after he pleaded guilty on Oct. 15, 2007, to one count of using a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of producing a visual depiction of such conduct, and one count of conspiracy to use a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of producing a visual depiction of such conduct. Aguirre, who cooperated with investigators, received a three-year sentence after he pleaded guilty on Oct. 30, 2007, to one count of attempted receipt of child pornography.

The cases were prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Corey Steinberg of the Southern District of Florida and Trial Attorney Elizabeth M. Yusi of the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section of the Department's Criminal Division. The cases were investigated by the Department of Homeland Security's U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Martin County Sheriff's Office.

The cases were part of Operation Predator, a comprehensive ICE initiative aimed at those who prey on children, including human traffickers, international sex tourists, Internet pornographers, and foreign national predators whose crimes make them deportable. Since the initiative was launched in July of 2003, there have been more than 10,000 individuals arrested nationwide.

Additional information about Operation Predator is available on the Web at http://www.ice.gov. ICE encourages the reporting of suspected child predators and any suspicious activity through its toll-free hotline at 1-866-DHS-2ICE. Investigators staff this hotline around the clock. Suspected child sexual exploitation or missing children may be reported to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, an Operation Predator partner, at 1-800-843-5678 or http://www.cybertipline.com.

-- 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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