Irving Man Man Sentenced to 17 Years in Federal Prison on Child Pornography Conviction

DALLAS —Javier Gallegos, 49, of Irving, Texas, was sentenced this afternoon by U.S. District Judge Sam A. Lindsay to 204 months (17 years) in federal prison, following his guilty plea in October 2015 to one count of transportation of child pornography, announced U.S. Attorney John Parker of the Northern District of Texas.

After serving his sentence, Gallegos will be referred to U.S. Immigration officials for deportation proceedings.

According to documents filed in the case, the investigation began in December 2014 when a detective with the Plano Police Department, working in an undercover capacity, noticed that a computer with a specific IP address was making files, with names indicative of child pornography, available for sharing.  Between December 5 and December 6, 2014, the detective downloaded 30 files, including 27 videos, of child pornography depicting the sexual abuse of minor children.

Law enforcement executed a search warrant at Gallegos’s home in March 2015, and Gallegos, who was home at the time, admitted that for approximately two years, he had used a file-sharing program on the Internet to obtain child pornography.  A forensic analysis of Gallegos’s laptop computer revealed that Gallegos had used the file-sharing program to share approximately 234 files and that the majority of those files had names consistent with child pornography.  The forensic analysis further revealed that Gallegos had 25 videos of child pornography on his laptop computer and thumb drive, with some depicting sadistic and/or violent content.

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.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Camille Sparks prosecuted.

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