KANSAS CITY, MO—Tammy Dickinson, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that a LaGrande, Oregon man was indicted by a federal grand jury today for traveling across states lines to Missouri to engage in illicit sex with a minor.

Abdul Lamont Gamble, 39, of LaGrande, Oregon, was charged in a single-count indictment returned by a federal grand jury in Kansas City, Missouri. Today’s indictment replaces a federal criminal complaint that was filed against Gamble on April 10, 2014.

The indictment alleges that Gamble traveled from Oregon to Missouri between March 25 and April 9, 2014, to engage in illicit sexual conduct with a minor and a commercial sex act with a minor.

According to the affidavit filed in support of the original criminal complaint, Gamble contacted an undercover law enforcement officer through a website on October 28, 2013, and offered to have sex with her fictitious 11-year-old and 15-year-old daughters. He allegedly continued to communicate with the undercover officer sporadically via e-mail, texts, and phone calls until late March 2014.

Gamble’s communications allegedly included explicit descriptions of the sexual acts he intended to perform on and with the two minor girls, as well as an agreement to pay $250 in exchange for his sexual activities with the two minor girls. Gamble traveled to Kansas City, Missouri on a Greyhound bus, the affidavit says, and arrived on April 9, 2014. The undercover officer met him at the bus station. According to the affidavit, Gamble paid the undercover officer $100 upfront and stated he would pay the remaining $150 after he completed the sex acts with the minor girls. Gamble also reconfirmed the sexual acts he intended on performing on and with the two minor girls.

They stopped at a CVS on Independence Avenue. As he exited the car and began to approach the CVS, police officers arrested Gamble.

Dickinson cautioned that the charge contained in this indictment is simply an accusation, and not evidence of guilt. Evidence supporting the charge must be presented to a federal trial jury, whose duty is to determine guilt or innocence.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick D. Daly. It was investigated by the Kansas City (Missouri) Police Department and the FBI.

Project Safe Childhood

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc. For more information about Internet safety education, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc and click on the tab “resources.”