CHILD PORNOGRAPHY CHARGES LEAD TO LENGTHY SENTENCE FOR CORPUS CHRISTI MAN

(CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas) - Ariel Garza, 37, will be serving 160 months in prison, without parole, to be followed by 20 years of supervised release and a lifetime sex offender registration for receiving and distributing child pornography, United States Attorney Don DeGabrielle announced today.

Garza pleaded guilty to receiving and distributing child pornography, July 30, 2007, admitting to have received the image an adult male engage in sexually explicit acts with a minor female. He was sentenced late Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2008, by U.S. District Judge John D. Rainey. In handing down the lengthy sentence, Rainey told Garza, who had no prior criminal history, he had imposed the lengthy sentence including the 20-year-term of supervised release and a lifetime of sex offender registration to address the seriousness of Garza's conduct and to protect our children by deterring others who might engage in similar behavior

The investigation leading to the arrest of Garza began when the Corpus Christi Police Department (CCPD) received a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) that an individual, later identified as Garza, had been chatting online with a female juvenile. The complainant said Garza had identified himself as a pedophile in the online communications. In October 2005, a CCPD officer, along with an FBI agent, contacted Garza. Garza admitted to possessing child pornography and agreed to a search of his computers. A forensic analysis of Garza's computers led to the discovery of numerous videos and images of child pornography, many of which had been previously identified through NCMEC and involved children under 10 years of age.

Immediately following the imposition of sentence, the court ordered Garza be taken into custody by the U.S. Marshals Service to begin serving his sentence.

The case against Garza is brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative designed to protect children from online exploitation and abuse, launched by the Department of Justice in February 2006. Led by the United States Attorney's Offices, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.

This case was prosecuted by Assistant U. S. Attorney Lance Duke.