A Juneau man has been sentenced to five years in federal prison for the distribution of child pornography.
Gilberto Valadez-Garcia, 40, a citizen of Mexico, was sentenced by Chief U.S. District Judge Timothy M. Burgess to five years imprisonment for a single count of distribution of child pornography. Upon the completion of his prison term, Valadez-Garcia must complete a 20-year term of supervised release.
According to Assistant U. S. Attorney Jack S. Schmidt, who prosecuted the case, Valadez-Garcia became the subject of a federal investigation after federal law enforcement officials had downloaded child pornography from Valadez-Garcia through the use of a peer to peer (P2P) file sharing program. Agents downloaded 12 videos from the defendant containing images of prepubescent minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct.
Prosecutors said at the time of his arrest that Valadez-Garcia knowingly distributed or attempted to distribute at least three videos that depicted minors being sexually exploited. The video titles of two of the videos indicated the minors were prepubescent girls, around 9 and 13.
Agents executed a search warrant at the defendant’s employer, as Valadez-Garcia allegedly was actively downloading images of child pornography using the employer’s internet service. A subsequent search of his computer revealed 69 images and 47 videos of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct, according to a press release from the U.S. Department of Justice.
Valadez-Garcia was arrested on an outstanding warrant at a restaurant in the Mendenhall Valley in April 2016, after a Juneau Police Department officer spotted him while he was having lunch.
Valadez-Garcia reportedly admitted to downloading the images and videos located on his computer and admitted to using a P2P program that distributed the images to others, Schmidt said. Valadez-Garcia further admitted that he knew it was illegal to view, possess, and distribute child pornography, but that he did not expect that it would be investigated.
The charges against Valadez-Garcia are the result of an investigation conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
