US Virgin Islands man arrested for producing and possessing child pornography

ST. THOMAS, U.S. Virgin Islands - A 21-year-old man was arrested Saturday for producing and possessing child porn, following an investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), and U.S. Virgin Islands Police Department (VIPD).

Akeem Gumbs, of St. Thomas, was arrested March 19 without incident at his residence during the execution of search and arrest warrants. The warrants were obtained after VIPD presented a DVD to ICE containing video clips of Gumbs engaged in sexual intercourse with an 8-year-old girl.

Gumbs was advised of his rights Monday in District Court in St. Thomas, and remains detained pending a detention and preliminary hearing on Wednesday. He is charged with sexually exploiting a minor while making a visual production of such incident, in violation of federal law.

"Sexual exploiting children is a despicable crime," said Roberto Escobar Vargas, special agent in charge of ICE HSI in Puerto Rico. "Working in conjunction with our state, local and federal law enforcement partners, we will continue aggressively pursuing those who victimize the most vulnerable segment of our society, our children."

This case was investigated under Operation Predator, an 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 by calling at 1-866-DHS-2ICE. For more information, visit www.ice.gov.