Gretna Man Sentenced to 20 Years Imprisonment for Distribution of Child Pornography

Acting U.S. Attorney Duane A. Evans, Jr. announced that GIORGIO COSENZA, age 30, of Gretna, was sentenced today after previously pleading guilty to a one-count Bill of Information charging him with distribution of images and videos depicting the sexual exploitation of children.

U.S. District Judge Kurt D. Engelhardt sentenced COSENZA to 240 months imprisonment followed by 5 years of supervised release, and a $100 special assessment. Additionally, COSENZA was ordered to register as a sex offender under the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act. A restitution hearing is scheduled for November 8, 2017.

According to court documents, law enforcement officials executed a search warrant at COSENZA’s residence on April 14, 2016. Agents obtained the search warrant after observing a posting he authored on a New Orleans-based online classified advertisement website and engaging him in email correspondence. During the email correspondence, COSENZA told a Special Agent of the FBI, acting in an undercover capacity, that he collected images and videos of children being sexually exploited.

During the execution of the search warrant, Special Agents with the FBI seized numerous electronic items including one laptop computer and one smartphone that contained images and videos of child pornography. A forensic examination of the device revealed that COSENZA used the devices to search for, download, and save images and videos of children as young as approximately three-year-old engaging being sexually victimized. The forensic examination located approximately 740 images and 30 videos of prepubescent children engaging in sexually explicit conduct. The contents of his devices also revealed that COSENZA had taken, saved, and subsequently distributed, sexually images of an approximately fourteen-year-old female with whom he stated he had engaged in sexual contact years earlier. Further, COSENZA engaged in text-based correspondence in 2014 and 2015 in which he distributed numerous sexually explicit images of children and, further, expressed an interest in engaging in sexual activity with minors between the ages of six and fourteen years old.

Based on the information contained within COSENZA’S smartphone, agents obtained a search warrant for the contents of his email account. The results of the search warrant revealed the COSENZA had received and distributed additional images depicting the sexual victimization of children.

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 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.projectsafechildhood.gov.

Acting U.S. Attorney Evans praised the work of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in investigating this matter. Assistant United States Attorney Jordan Ginsberg was in charge of the prosecution.