California Man Sentenced To 10 Years In Prison For Conspiracy To Receive And Distribute Child Pornography

OAKLAND - Abel Garcia-DeLeon was sentenced to 10 years in prison for facilitating the distribution of child sex abuse materials in connection with serving as the administrator for several chatrooms designated for sharing illegal child exploitation materials, announced United States Attorney Stephanie M. Hinds and U.S. Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) San Francisco Special Agent in Charge Tatum King. The sentence was handed down by the Hon. Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, U.S. District Court Judge.

Garcia-DeLeon pleaded guilty to the charge on June 9, 2022.  According to the plea agreement, Garcia-DeLeon admitted that he agreed with another person to use the Kik social media application to receive and distribute images depicting minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct.  Specifically, the plea agreement states that Garcia DeLeon, along with his co-defendant, administered a private chat group on Kik.  The co-defendants organized a “Rage Bot” that instructed anyone intending to join the chat group to first send three videos depicting child pornography.  Intended users were instructed to send the videos via private messenger to “verify” themselves. After the intended user delivered to the defendants the three videos, the person would be invited to enter a second private chat group. While in the second chat group, intended users would encounter another “Rage Bot” that instructed members to post videos depicting children aged ten or younger who were engaged in sexually explicit conduct.  Intended users who did not post three videos within six minutes of being admitted to the group were removed from the group. Between May 8, 2020, and May 20, 2020, Garcia-DeLeon and his co-defendant were joined by at least ten other members of the chat group.

In his plea agreement, Garcia-DeLeon also admitted that he distributed to the chat group images of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct.  Further, Garcia-DeLeon acknowledged he administered several other chat groups dedicated to the exchange of child pornography.  Garcia-DeLeon acknowledged that law enforcement officers searched his home on August 19, 2020, and that at that time, Garcia-DeLeon possessed on his phone at least 684 images and one video depicting minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct.

On February 9, 2021, a federal grand jury indicted Garcia-DeLeon charging him with conspiracy to receive and distribute child pornography, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 2252(a)(2) and (b), and one count of distribution of child pornography, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2252(a)(2) and (b).  Pursuant to his plea agreement, Garcia-DeLeon pleaded guilty to the conspiracy count and the substantive distribution count was dismissed at sentencing.

In addition to the prison term, Judge Gonzalez Rogers also sentenced Garcia-DeLeon to a 10-year period of supervised release that will commence after the prison term is concluded.  The defendant was immediately remanded into custody.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Alexis James prosecuted the case with the assistance of Katie Turner and Kay Konopaske.  The prosecution is the result of an investigation by Homeland Security Investigations and the Contra Costa District Attorney’s Office.