Port Isabel Man Sentenced to More Than Eight Years for Child Pornography Offenses

BROWNSVILLE, TX—A Port Isabel man was sentenced to 97 months in federal prison today for possessing hundreds of images and videos obtained via the Internet depicting child pornography, United States Attorney José Angel Moreno announced today.

Samuel Tabares, 34, of Port Isabel, Texas, was sentenced today to 97 months’ confinement to be followed by a lifetime term of supervised release by United States District Judge Hilda G. Tagle. He previously pleaded guilty before Judge Tagle and has been in federal custody since his arrest last year. Tabares will also be required to register as a sex offender and will be prohibited from being around children under 18 without prior court approval and will be required to attend sex offender counseling, among other conditions.

The charges against Tabares are the result of the investigative efforts of the FBI and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) initiated when two separate undercover FBI agents searching the Internet for child pornography sites found child pornography on a file-sharing program which led to the identification of Tabares’ computer as hosting the files. This information lead to the securing of a search warrant for Tabares’ residence in Port Isabel and his computer and ultimately the discovery of 343 images and 132 videos containing child pornography, including some of the same images the undercover agents had observed in the file-sharing program.

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, 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.

Assistant United States Attorney Joseph Leonard is prosecuting the case.