The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) also announced the arrest of three American men who were charged with crimes to use Internet to find teenage girls to have sex with and have child porn on computer.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) confirmed on Friday that Curtis David Fahberg, a 63-year-old retired engineer from Mississippi, was taken into custody by ICE on June 12 at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) following his deportation from Thailand.
Fahlberg, accompanied by ICE agents, was returned from Thailand to face charges detailed in a criminal complaint filed last month that he engaged in illicit sexual conduct in foreign countries.
The violation carries a maximum sentence of up to 30 years in prison. The case is being prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California in Los Angeles.
Fahlberg was arrested on June 9 at his residence in Pattaya City, Thailand, by Thai immigration authorities and placed in deportation proceedings. At the hearing Wednesday in Los Angeles, U.S. Magistrate Judge Jennifer T. Lum ordered Fahlberg detained pending trial.
ICE's probe into Fahlberg's activities began in June 2006 after officers with U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) at LAX questioned him following his return from a trip to Thailand.
A preliminary examination by CBP of two laptop computers and a cell phone Fahlberg had in his possession revealed images of children in various stages of undress. A subsequent forensic analysis by ICE of those media uncovered more sexually explicit images of children as well as numerous e-mails written by Fahlberg detailing his sexual exploitation of children in Thailand and Cambodia.
The affidavit filed in connection with the criminal complaint described the defendant's alleged sexual activities with several underage girls, the youngest of whom told investigators she was in second grade when the defendant began photographing her in the nude.
According to the affidavit, several of the girls Fahlberg had sexual encounters with were child prostitutes who worked in the Cambodian village of Svay Pak outside Phnom Pehn. In an e-mail recovered from Fahlberg's computer, he wrote "I don't worry how old a girl is if I like her."
"The charges against this defendant are a direct result of the extraordinary cooperation we received from Thai and Cambodian law enforcement," said Robert Schoch, special agent in charge of the ICE Office of Investigations in Los Angeles .
"Some pedophiles mistakenly believe they can escape detection and prosecution by committing child sex crimes overseas. We are putting pedophiles on notice that ICE and its law enforcement partners here and abroad stand ready to pursue and prosecute those who sexually exploit children," said Schoch.
"The exploitation of children is among the most heinous of crimes," said Director of Field Operations Kevin Weeks.
He said his team will remain vigilant in the efforts to secure the borders and the communities by working diligently to enforce laws involving crimes against children.
The probe into Fahlberg's activities was conducted by ICE's Office of Investigations in Los Angeles and the agency's attach office in Bangkok.
ICE worked closely on the case with the Department of State's Diplomatic Security Service, the Cambodian National Police and the Royal Thai Police. ICE also received substantial assistance from Hagar International and World Vision, two non-governmental organizations involved in the effort to aid Cambodian child sex tourism victims.
Fahlberg is being prosecuted under the provisions of the Protect Act, which went into effect six years ago, substantially strengthened federal laws against predatory crimes involving children outside the United States by adding new crimes and increasing the penalties for these charges.
Meanwhile, FBI announced that two men from Orange County in Southern California were arrested for allegedly using the Internet to find teenage girls to have sex with, and a third was arrested on suspicion of having child porn on his computer.
David Brown, 34, of Lake Forest, allegedly had a four-month sexual relationship with a 15-year-old girl, while Richard Chaney,23, of Costa Mesa, is accused of having sex with a 14-year-old girl, said Salvador Hernandez, assistant director in charge of the FBI's Los Angeles Field Office.
Brock Jackson, 21, of Rancho Santa Margarita, was arrested Thursday by Fullerton police detectives on suspicion of possessing child pornography. He was arrested during an investigation into a vehicle theft, during which hundreds of videos and 6,000 pictures of alleged child porn were found on his laptop computer, Hernandez said.
| Editor: Yan |
No comments:
Post a Comment