West Texas man sentenced to more than 27 years in federal prison for producing child pornography

LUBBOCK, Texas — A West Texas man was sentenced Friday by U.S. District Judge Sam R. Cummings to 327 months in federal prison and 20 years of supervised release, following his guilty plea in November 2017 to two counts of producing child pornography.

This sentence was announced by U.S. Attorney Erin Nealy Cox of the Northern District of Texas.  This case was investigated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), and Lubbock County Sheriff’s Office.

Kevin Ismael Lopez, 25, of Lubbock, Texas, has been in custody since his arrest in August 2017 on a related criminal complaint.

According to the plea agreement factual resume, on Dec. 14, 2016, Lopez used his mother’s cellphone, to record a video of Lopez engaging in sexual conduct with a prepubescent minor female as she slept at his Lubbock residence.

On Jan. 24, 2017, at the same residence, Lopez used another cellphone to record a video of Lopez engaging in sexual conduct with another prepubescent minor as she slept. Lopez also made a sexually explicit video recording of the girl. After creating this video, Lopez used the internet to transport the video to his Dropbox account, which he used for online storage of some of his videos and images.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Haag, Northern District of Texas, prosecuted this case.

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 16,000 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 2016, more than 2,600 child predators were arrested by HSI special agents under this initiative and more than 800 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. HSI is a founding member of the Virtual Global Taskforce, an international alliance of law enforcement agencies and private industry sector partners working together to prevent and deter online child sexual abuse.