Fort Worth man sentenced to nearly 20 years in federal prison for possessing child pornography
Defendant had child pornography on thumb drives in his pocket when he was arrested for possessing drug paraphernalia
FORT WORTH, Texas – A local man was sentenced Friday by U.S. District Judge John McBryde to 19 years and seven months in federal prison, following his guilty plea in March to one count of possessing visual depictions of a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct, announced U.S. Attorney Sarah R. Saldaña of the Northern District of Texas.
Domingo Castellon, 56, has been in custody since his arrest in late January 2012.
On Jan. 23, Fort Worth police officers arrested Castellon for possessing drug paraphernalia. While at the jail, officers retrieved three thumb drives from the front pocket of his pants. Castellon admitted that the thumb drives, which contained about 2,000 images and movies of child pornography, were his. The desktop computer Castellon used to acquire the child pornography was seized during a search of his bedroom at his Fort Worth residence.
The investigation was conducted by the Fort Worth Police Department and U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).
Assistant U.S. Attorney Aisha Saleem, Northern District of Texas, prosecuted this case.
This investigation was part of Operation Predator, a nationwide HSI 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. HSI encourages the public to report suspected child predators and any suspicious activity through its toll-free hotline at 1-866-DHS-2ICE 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, at 1-800-843-5678 or http://www.cybertipline.com.
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