Production and Distribution of Child Pornography Lands Houston Man in Federal Prison for 50 Years

HOUSTON—Arturo Enrique Ochoa, 23, of Houston, will now serve 50 years in federal prison following his convictions of production and distribution of child pornography, United States Attorney Ken Magidson announced today. The sentence was handed down by U.S. District Judge Sim Lake in Houston federal court late today.

The investigation began in June 2010 when FBI Dallas, working in an undercover capacity, located an individual making child pornography available using peer-to-peer software. When it was determined that the individual resided here, the case was turned over to Houston FBI. The subsequent investigation by the Houston FBI Innocent Images Task Force revealed that Ochoa was targeting young boys his mother was caring for and molesting them. Agents learned that children regularly visited Ochoa’s apartment and that he gave the children money or offered to buy them video games to obtain their cooperation.

Ochoa documented these events with pictures and videos that were later found on his computer, some of which were made available online by Ochoa using peer-to-peer file sharing software. Ochoa produced more than 200 images and videos involving six local children, who were located and identified by the task force. Ochoa admitted to performing oral sex on a 12-year-old male child, and there is at least one video depicting this child among the images seized.

In addition to the child pornography produced by Ochoa, he was in possession of more than 300,000 images and 6,200 videos containing child pornography. These images involved minors under the age of 12 and sadistic and masochistic conduct. Ochoa has admitted he had been viewing child pornography for years and possessing approximately 10 gigabytes of child pornography. Ochoa pleaded guilty on May 26, 2011.

Ochoa was sentenced to 360 and 240 months for the production and distribution counts, respectively, which will be served consecutively. Additionally, the court imposed a $10,000 fine. Upon his release from prison, Ochoa will be on supervised release for life and be required to register as a sex offender.

Ochoa has been in federal custody without bond since his arrest where he will remain pending transfer to a Bureau of Prison facility to be determined in the near future.

This case, prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Sherri L. Zack, was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation. Led by United States Attorneys’ Offices, 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 projectsafechildhood.gov.