Former Fugitive Sentenced to 16 Years for Production of Child Pornography and Absconding
Defendant Coerced Minor Girls to Engage in Sexual Conduct Over Internet, Jumped Bail Following His Arrest

ALEXANDRIA, VA—Alex Ernesto Calderon Velasquez, 27, of Reston, Virginia, was sentenced today to 192 months in prison for production of child pornography and failure to appear in court as required.

Dana J. Boente, Acting United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia; Valerie Parlave, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office; and Colonel Edwin C. Roessler, Jr., Fairfax County Chief of Police, made the announcement after sentencing by United States District Judge Anthony J. Trenga.

Calderon Velasquez pleaded guilty on July 25, 2013. According to court documents, Calderon Velasquez used his computer to communicate with a 14-year-old girl in Texas, referred to as Minor A. In about September 2012, Calderon Velasquez sexually groomed and then extorted the victim to strip and engage in sexual activity over Skype chats, which Calderon Velasquez recorded and kept on his computer along with other child pornography. Separately, from about September 2011 through about October 2011, Calderon Velasquez persuaded and enticed another 14-year-old female victim, Minor B, in Arizona to engage in sexually explicit conduct for the purposes of producing video recordings, which the defendant then stored on his laptop computer.

Originally, Calderon Velasquez was scheduled to plead guilty to production of child pornography on May 24, 2013. On the morning of his guilty plea hearing, however, Calderon Velasquez absconded. That morning, law enforcement officers discovered his cut-off ankle bracelet in Vienna, Virginia. He was captured later on June 7, 2013, in San Antonio, Texas.

In addition to the term of imprisonment, Judge Trenga imposed 10 years of supervised release, forfeiture of the bond amount of $25,000, and restitution in the amount of $4,890.

This case was investigated by the FBI Washington Field Office’s Child Exploitation Task Force, the Fairfax County Police Department, and the Harris County Constable’s Office in Texas. Assistant United States Attorney Alexander T.H. Nguyen and Jay V. Prabhu prosecuted the case on behalf of the United States.

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 United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), 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 to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.

A copy of this press release may be found on the website of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia at http://www.justice.gov/usao/vae.