Northern California man sentenced to 10 years for attempting to entice minor for sex

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - A Redding, Calif., man was sentenced Friday to 10 years in prison after an investigation revealed he attempted to use the Internet to entice a minor to engage in unlawful sexual conduct. The investigation was led by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Office of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).

Cody Ambord, 26, who pleaded guilty July 9, will also be subject to 10 years of supervised release following the completion of his prison term.  Ambord came under suspicion in 2009 after the parents of a 14-year-old Placer County girl discovered he had been conducting an Internet relationship with their daughter and had convinced her to meet him near her home for sex. The parents intervened and assumed the girl's online identity.

In late February 2009, Ambord traveled to the Sacramento area to meet the girl and one of her girlfriends, another 14-year-old. After he arrived in Sacramento, Ambord was not able to contact the first girl, and turned instead to her girlfriend, contacting her via instant messaging, not aware that the girl's mother had assumed her identity. Ambord asked the "girlfriend" to sneak out and meet him at a midtown motel. The mother contacted police and on March 1, 2009, Ambord was arrested at his midtown Sacramento motel.

Ambord admitted to authorities he had engaged in many online communications with one 14-year-old girl for a long period of time, and that during his online conversations, the two had discussed sex.  He said he had bought a bus ticket to travel to Roseville, Calif., to meet the girl. After he arrived in Sacramento, he was unable to contact the 14-year-old girl, and instead contacted her girlfriend.

The charges are part of ICE's Operation Predator, a nationwide initiative to identify, investigate and arrest those who sexually exploit children, and the Department of Justice's Project Safe Childhood, which marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet.

As part of Operation Predator, ICE encourages the public to report suspected child predators and any suspicious activity through its toll-free hotline at 1-866-347-2423.  This hotline is staffed around the clock by investigators.  Suspected child sexual exploitation or missing children may be reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, an Operation Predator partner, at 1-800-843-5678 or http://www.cybertipline.com.

Through Project Safe Childhood, the Department of Justice is seeking to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse.  For more information, visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov or call the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of California and ask to speak with the PSC coordinator.

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