DALLAS—Vasni Molina, 30, of Grand Prairie, Texas, was sentenced this afternoon by U.S. District Judge Jane J. Boyle to the statutory maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison following his guilty plea to an information charging one count of receipt of child pornography, announced U.S. Attorney John Parker of the Northern District of Texas.

Molina has been in federal custody since he entered his guilty plea in June 2015.

According to documents filed in the case, an investigation by the FBI to identify individuals who used the Internet to distribute child pornography led to the identification of an IP address that was eventually linked to Molina. In February, an investigator downloaded 11 files from that IP address; nine of those files contained child pornography.

A federal search warrant was executed at Molina’s residence on March 30, 2015, and special agents with the FBI seized a laptop computer and computer media. Molina admitted he had used a file-sharing network to view and download images and videos of child pornography. He stated he had been viewing child pornography for more than three years and that approximately 75 percent of the 100 videos he had on his laptop would be child pornography. He admitted downloading hundreds of files of child pornography over the past three years.

A forensic analysis, however, located more than 800 videos of child pornography on Molina’s computer and other media. Molina admitted he received and possessed videos that included bondage and sadistic acts involving minors and that the majority of his child pornography collection was videos of prepubescent children.

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

The FBI and the Plano Police Department investigated, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Camille Sparks prosecuted.