New York Man Sentenced to Seven Years in Prison for Transporting Child Pornography into New Jersey

TRENTON, N.J. – A New York man was sentenced today to 84 months in prison for transporting multiple items of child sexual abuse into New Jersey, U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger announced.

Jesus Modesto Sanchez, 31, of New York, previously pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Zahid N. Quraishi to an information charging him with one count of transporting of child pornography. Judge Quraishi imposed the sentence today in Trenton federal court.

According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court:

In October 2020, Modesto Sanchez began communicating with an undercover officer who he believed was a minor on a web-based application. On Oct. 17, 2020, Modesto Sanchez was arrested after traveling from New York to New Jersey to meet the undercover officer. Law enforcement officers subsequently discovered a significant collection of child pornography on Modesto Sanchez’s cellular telephone, including 72 videos and one image depicting the sexual abuse of minors.

In addition to the prison sentence, Judge Quraishi sentenced Modesto Sanchez to five years of supervised release.  

U.S. Attorney Sellinger credited special agents with the FBI, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge James Dennehy in Newark, and members of the Somerset County Prosecutor’s Office, under the direction of Prosecutor John P. McDonald, with the investigation leading to today’s sentence.

The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Shawn Barnes of the U.S. Attorney’s Office Criminal Division in Newark.