Citizen of Guatemala Is Sentenced To Eight Years In Prison On Child Pornography Charges

CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Robson Gustavo Morales Santos, 31, was sentenced on Monday, September 30, 2019, to 96 months in prison on child pornography charges, announced Andrew Murray, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina. Santos, who is a citizen of Guatemala residing illegally in the United States, was also sentenced to a lifetime of supervised release and was ordered to register as a sex offender. U.S. District Judge Robert J. Conrad Jr. presided over the sentencing hearing.

According to information contained in filed court documents and yesterday’s sentencing hearing, law enforcement received a cybertip that Santos was uploading child pornography to a cloud application.  A forensic analysis of Santos’ cell phone, and a subsequent search of his cloud account by law enforcement, revealed that Santos possessed more than 600 videos depicting the sexual abuse of children, some of whom were prepubescent minors as young as infants.  Santos pleaded guilty on April 29, 2019, to receiving child pornography.

In making today’s announcement U.S. Attorney Murray thanked the Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Department and the FBI for their investigation of this case.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Alfredo De La Rosa, of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Charlotte, prosecuted the case.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse, launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. 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.projectsafechildhood.gov.