Massachusetts Man Faces 15+ Years for Child Porn, Gun Trafficking

PORTLAND, Maine: Aden Mohamed, 26, a Massachusetts man, pleaded guilty today in U.S. District Court in Portland to conspiring to straw purchase firearms, conspiring to distribute controlled substances, and producing child sexual abuse material.

According to court records, from late 2020 until at least July 2023, Mohamed was among the leaders of a wide-ranging criminal conspiracy to traffic firearms purchased by straw purchasers in Maine to sell to customers in Syracuse, New York and Springfield, Massachusetts. Mohamed was often paid in drugs, primarily cocaine, which he used to facilitate the firearms trafficking activity by paying straw purchasers in drugs for their services.

Mohamed regularly bought and sold hundreds of grams per week of cocaine as part of this scheme. During the investigation into the firearms trafficking conspiracy, law enforcement seized Mohamed’s phone and discovered child sexual abuse material on the device.

The resulting investigation revealed that Mohamed had compelled two minors into sexually explicit situations for the purpose of producing child sexual abuse material. Mohamed faces up to five years in prison and a maximum fine of $250,000 on the firearms charges, up to 20 years in prison and a maximum $1 million fine on the drug charges, and at least 15 years imprisonment (up to a maximum 30 years) and a fine up to $250,000 on the production of child sexual abuse material charge.

As part of a plea agreement with the government, Mohamed – a Somalian national – has agreed to the entry of a judicial order of removal, which will result in his deportation from the United States following a term of at least 15 years of incarceration. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) investigated the cases.

The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children received 36 million reports of the possession, manufacture, or distribution of child sexual abuse materials in 2023. To file a report with NCMEC, go to https://report.cybertip.org or call 1-800-843-5678. If you are in Maine and you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted or abused, you can get help by calling the free, private 24-hour statewide sexual assault helpline at 1-800-871-7741.

This 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 Department of Justice. 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, visit https://www.justice.gov/usao-me/psc.