In San Antonio today, 38-year-old Armando Robledo Gonzales was sentenced to 25 years in federal prison for production of child pornography, announced U.S. Attorney John F. Bash, FBI Special Agent in Charge Christopher Combs, San Antonio Division, and Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar.

In addition to the prison term, Senior U.S. District Judge David A. Ezra ordered that Gonzales be placed under supervised release for a period of ten years after completing his prison term.

On December 11, 2018, Gonzales pleaded guilty to the production charge.  By pleading guilty, Gonzales admitted that in May 2017, he used the Internet to persuade a 13 year old to produce and send him visual images and videos of the minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct. 

“We have a crisis of child sex abuse in this country and we must use every tool available to both federal and state law enforcement to address it. The efforts of the San Antonio Child Exploitation Task Force and my office demonstrate how we can effectively combine resources to apprehend and prosecute predators like Armando Gonzales,” stated U.S. Attorney Bash.

“Everyday, across the world, and in our community children are suffering in silence as we go about our daily activities,” said FBI SAC Combs. “The San Antonio Child Exploitation Task Force will relentlessly pursue every lead to rescue children who are being victimized, and bring their perpetrators to justice.  We would encourage members of the public to help us protect children, who are among the most vulnerable in our community.”

The FBI San Antonio’s Child Exploitation Human Trafficking Task Force investigated this case.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Tracy Thompson prosecuted this case on behalf of the Government. 

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice.  Led by U.S. 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.