Iowa man sentenced to 50 years for child pornography charges following ICE HSI, law enforcement partner investigation

DAVENPORT, Iowa — Justin Treanton, age 37, of Bettendorf, was sentenced on Monday, to 30 years in federal prison for the production of child pornography and 20 years in prison for the possession of child pornography, with the sentences run consecutively for a total of 50 years in federal prison following a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), law enforcement partner investigation.

After serving his prison sentence, Treanton will be under federal supervised release for the rest of his life and required to register as a sex offender.

This case came to light after Treanton sent child pornography, which he had produced through the hands-on sex abuse of a four-year-old child, to an undercover police officer in New Zealand. The child pornography was traced back to Treanton in Bettendorf. When law enforcement executed a search warrant on Treanton’s cell phone they located other images of child pornography portraying infants and toddlers and violence. United States Attorney Richard D. Westphal of the Southern District of Iowa made the announcement. This case was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations, Iowa Division of Criminal Investigations, Bettendorf Police Department, and the Scott County Sheriff’s Office. This case was prosecuted by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa as part of the U.S. Department of Justice’s “Project Safe Childhood” initiative, which was started in 2006 as a nation-wide effort to combine law enforcement investigations and prosecutions, community action, and public awareness in order to reduce the incidence of sexual exploitation of children. Any persons having knowledge of a child being sexually abused are encouraged to call the Iowa Sexual Abuse Hotline at 1-800-284-7821, 911 or the HSI Tipline at 866-347-2423.

HSI is a directorate of ICE and the principal investigative arm of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), responsible for investigating transnational crime and threats, specifically those criminal organizations that exploit the global infrastructure through which international trade, travel, and finance move. HSI’s workforce of over 10,400 employees consists of more than 7,100 Special Agents assigned to 220 cities throughout the United States, and 80 overseas locations in 53 countries. HSI’s international presence represents DHS’s largest investigative law enforcement presence abroad and one of the largest international footprints in U.S. law enforcement.

Learn more about HSI’s mission to combat child exploitation @HSIKansasCity.