New York City school guidance counselor pleads guilty to transportation of child pornography

NEW YORK — A New York City school guidance counselor and teacher's union representative plead guilty to the transportation of child pornography in interstate and foreign commerce. The guilty plea stems from an investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).

John Capuano, 43, of Valley Stream, New York admits to using an Internet application to trade child pornography and posting the images on-line.

According to court documents, in April 2015, an undercover HSI agent, as part of an ongoing effort to locate individuals sharing child pornography, found child pornography images and videos involving children as young as 3-5 year's old which had been posted by Capuano to a chat room in a publicly available Internet application.

After tracing the location information for the account used to post the images, HSI special agents obtained a search warrant and executed it on May 28, 2015 at Capuano's residence in Valley Stream, New York.

During the search, Capuano spoke to the special agents following a waiver of his Miranda rights and admitted that he used the Internet application to trade child pornography and posted the images located by the undercover agent. Capuano also identified his personal telephone and his work telephone as a teacher's union representative as devices he used to access these materials. HSI special agents arrested Capuano and he remains incarcerated.

Capuano faces a mandatory minimum sentence of five years in prison and a maximum of 20 years.

This investigation was conducted under HSI's Operation Predator, an international initiative to protect children from sexual predators. Since the launch of Operation Predator in 2003, HSI has arrested more than 14,000 individuals for crimes against children, including the production and distribution of online child pornography, traveling overseas for sex with minors, and sex trafficking of children. In fiscal year 2015, nearly 2,400 individuals were arrested by HSI special agents under this initiative and more than 1,000 victims identified or rescued.

HSI encourages the public to report suspected child predators and any suspicious activity through its toll-free Tip Line at 1-866-DHS-2-ICE or by completing its online tip form. Both are staffed around the clock by investigators. From outside the U.S. and Canada, callers should dial 802-872-6199. Hearing impaired users can call TTY 802-872-6196.

Suspected child sexual exploitation or missing children may be reported to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, an Operation Predator partner, via its toll-free 24-hour hotline, 1-800-THE-LOST.

For additional information about wanted suspected child predators, download HSI's Operation Predator smartphone app or visit the online suspect alerts page.