Armando Rafael Mascorro, Attempted Enticement of a Minor, Texas 2021

EL PASO, Texas – A 36-year-old El Paso man was sentenced to 10 years in prison for attempting to entice a minor, announced U.S. Attorney Ashley C. Hoff.

Armando Rafael Mascorro, a naturalized U.S. citizen born in Mexico, was further ordered to serve five years of supervised release following completion of his prison term and will be required to register as a sex offender.

According to court documents, on April 24, 2021, Mascorro communicated with someone he believed to be 14 years old through a popular social media messaging application. During those conversations, Mascorro detailed his intended plans to engage in sexual acts with the child and admitted that he had an attraction to “younger females.” Mascorro later drove to a pre-arranged meeting location to engage in a sexual act with the child, where he was immediately taken into custody as the minor was, in reality, an undercover law enforcement officer.

On October 7, 2021, Mascorro pleaded guilty to one count of attempted enticement of a minor.

“While the internet can be an important educational tool for our nation’s youth, there are bad actors who corrupt its purpose, attempting to harm and exploit children online,” said U.S. Attorney Ashley C. Hoff. “These prosecutions are crucial in making the internet safer for children.”

Mascorro’s case was investigated by the FBI and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Michelle Winters.

The case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the federal government. 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.

The El Paso Child Exploitation & Human Trafficking Task Force partners who participated in the FBI’s April 2021 sexual coercion and enticement of a minor operation, Operation April Fools, also played a crucial role in Mascorro’s case.

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