Man Pleads Guilty to the Sexual Exploitation of Two Children

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – A Mexican national pleaded guilty today to two counts of production of child pornography.

According to court documents, in March 2018, Abel Ambrocio, 54, of Alexandria, Virginia, developed an online relationship with a woman in Honduras over a social media platform. From around October 2018 through at least February 2019, Ambrocio instructed the woman to record and send him over 100 images of herself sexually abusing her two children—an approximately three-year-old boy and an approximately ten-year-old girl. Ambrocio instructed the mother to engage in specific sex acts with her children and record herself doing so on multiple occasions, even when she told Ambrocio that one of the children was in pain and crying from the previous sex act. Later, in March 2019, Ambrocio distributed images of the woman sexually abusing her three-year-old son over a social media platform.

“The defendant’s conduct, which caused the sexual abuse of two young children, is both horrific and heartbreaking” said Raj Parekh, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. “The production of child pornography inflicts devastating and lifelong harm to society’s most vulnerable victims. EDVA is committed to working with our law enforcement partners to bring child sexual predators to justice.”

Ambrocio pleaded guilty to two counts of production of child pornography. He is scheduled to be sentenced on August 4 and faces a mandatory minimum penalty of 15 years in prison. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

Raj Parekh, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia; Nicholas L. McQuaid, Acting Assistant Attorney General of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division; James A. Dawson, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office Criminal Division; and Colonel Edwin C. Roessler Jr., Fairfax County Chief of Police, made the announcement after U.S. District Judge Anthony J. Trenga accepted the plea.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan S. Keim and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney William G. Clayman are prosecuting the case.

This case 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 and abuse. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and 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