Salvadoran national sentenced to 20 years in federal prison for distributing child pornography following HSI investigation

SANTA ANA, Calif. — A Salvadoran national – who was previously convicted of sexually abusing a minor and removed from the United States– was sentenced today to 240 months in federal prison for distributing child pornography on Facebook’s Messenger after he unlawfully reentered the U.S.

Jose Ramon Aguilar-Moreno, 52, of Fontana, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge David O. Carter, the result of an investigation by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Los Angeles and the U.S. Marshal’s Service.

Aguilar-Moreno pleaded guilty in July 2020 to one count of distribution of child pornography and one count of failure to register as a sex offender.

In August 2002, Aguilar-Moreno was convicted in San Bernardino County Superior Court of committing lewd and lascivious acts on a minor. Following his removal from the U.S. in June 2003, he unlawfully returned to the United States in 2016. Since that time, he failed to register as a sex offender in California or anywhere else in the United States, which was a requirement of his 2002 conviction.

In June 2018, Aguilar-Moreno used the name “Abel Aguilar” on the Messenger application to distribute three videos that depicted minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct.

In June 2019, HSI special agents executed a search warrant at Aguilar-Moreno’s residence – which was across the street from an elementary school – and discovered over 900 still image and more than 1,200 videos of child pornography on his cell phones. Aguilar-Moreno’s child pornography “collection spans the gamut and is documentation of some of the most demeaning abuse inflicted on victims of child pornography,” prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memo filed with the court.

In the sentencing memo, prosecutors noted that Aguilar-Moreno also used WhatsApp to welcome individuals to “the world of child pornography” as he solicited the exchange of images and videos. Aguilar-Moreno chatted with individuals in at least 14 countries, meaning “His reach and impact truly was global,” prosecutors wrote.

In addition to the prison sentence, Judge Carter ordered Aguilar-Moreno to pay $60,000 in restitution to the victims depicted in the child pornography in this case.

The case was prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California’s Riverside Office.

HSI is a directorate of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the principal investigative arm of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, 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.