An undocumented immigrant arrested in Mississippi will spend 17 years in prison after pleading guilty to possession of child pornography and illegal reentry to the U.S. after previously being deported.
Miguel Angel Sierra-Torreblanca, a 40-year-old from Mexico, was arrested following a joint investigation by law enforcement in Lowndes County and Charleston, S.C. According to court documents, investigators in Charleston first developed leads through the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, which later tied Sierra-Torreblanca to the trafficking of child sexual abuse images. They then worked with law enforcement in Lowndes County to track down Sierra-Torreblanca and take him into custody.
Upon being arrested, Sierra-Torreblanca was found to be in possession of two cell phones containing images and videos of children being sexually abused. The hundreds of images and videos depicted graphic sexual abuse of children, some of whom were infants and toddlers.
Sierra-Torreblanca later admitted to law enforcement that the images and videos belonged to him and he was part of a transnational group that traded and shared graphic images.
He was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Sharion Aycock to 180 months in federal prison for possession of child pornography and 24 months for his illegal reentry. Authorities say Sierra-Torreblanca had been deported from the U.S. three times before the arrest.
“This conviction and sentence makes it clear that there is no tolerance for anyone exploiting children in our community, especially when the defendant is someone who should never have been present in this country in the first place,” U.S. Attorney Clay Joyner said. “The U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Northern District of Mississippi is committed to fully prosecuting those who are here unlawfully, especially if they harm innocent children and possess images of child sexual abuse.”
Sierra-Torreblanca will be required to register as a sex offender. Aycock ordered for him to be turned over to Immigrations and Customs Enforcement for deportation proceedings upon the conclusion of his federal prison system.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys John Herzog Jr. and Paul Roberts prosecuted the case. The Lowndes County Sheriff’s Department, Charleston (SC) Sheriff’s Department, and Department of Homeland Security investigated the case, which was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative under the Justice Department to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse.
