Mark Barreto, Child Pornography Manufacturing, Illinois 2013

A Chicago area man has been sentenced to 22 years in federal prison for producing child pornography involving two 16-year-old girls he met in private Internet chat rooms in 2012.

Mark Barreto, 36, of Elmwood Park and formerly of Chicago, pleaded guilty in June of this year to one count of manufacturing child pornography.

Manufacturing child pornography carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years and a maximum of 30 years in prison.

U.S. District Judge Edmond Chang noted the 'extremely serious' nature of Barreto's crime and the vulnerability of both the teenage victims and others as young as 5-years-old who were discovered in pornographic images that Barreto possessed.

Barreto was also ordered to pay $8,600 restitution to a known victim of child pornography who was identified through the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

U.S. postal inspectors conducted a search of Barreto's residence in October 2012 and found a laptop computer that contained approximately 433 images and 15 videos of child pornography, as well as email accounts showing that he had been communicating with various minor females, including the two he induced to produce images and videos of child pornography for him.

The sentence was announced by Zachary T. Fardon, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, and Tony Gómez, Special Agent-in-Charge of the U.S. Postal Inspection Service in Chicago.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndil/pr/chicago-area-man-sentenced-22-years-prison-manufacturing-child-pornogrphy