Raul E. Villalva, Child Pornography, Missouri 2018

A Kansas City, Missouri resident, Raul E. Villalva, also known as Isabelle Villalva, a biological male who identifies as a female, has been sentenced to 20 years in federal prison without parole for possessing child pornography.

Villalva, 26, pleaded guilty to the crime on Oct. 9, 2019, and was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Stephen R. Bough.

The investigation began in July 2018, when the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children received a report from an online file hosting service that a user in the Kansas City area had uploaded 42 files of child pornography.

Law enforcement officers executed a search warrant at Villalva's residence on Oct. 3, 2018, and seized his cell phone, which contained videos and images of child pornography.

Some of the child pornography depicted on Villalva's cell phone showed the child victim being molested by an adult male who lived with Villalva, while a single video depicted Villalva engaging in sexual contact with the same child victim.

Villalva will be required to register as a sex offender upon his release from prison and will be subject to federal and state sex offender registration requirements, which may apply throughout his life.

This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney David Luna and was investigated by the Western Missouri Cyber Crimes Task Force, the Platte County, Mo., Sheriff's Department, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).

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

Source: https://www.justice.gov/usao-wdmo/pr/kc-resident-sentenced-20-years-child-pornography