Fort Worth man pleads guilty to federal child pornography charge

FORT WORTH, Texas — On Thursday, Louis E. Gray, 40, of Fort Worth, Texas, pleaded guilty to one count of possessing child pornography.

This case was investigated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Operations (HSI).

According to documents filed in the case, when ICE HSI executed a search warrant at Gray's residence, they located two working computers and 17 hard drives. A forensic examination of two of those hard drives has shown they contain about 2,500 images of child pornography.

Gray faces a statutory sentence of no less than 10 years in prison and no more than 20, as well as a $250,000 fine and up to a lifetime of supervised release. He is currently in custody and sentencing is scheduled for Nov. 10.

This investigation was 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.

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 http://www.cybertipline.com.