U.S. Military Contractor Sentenced to 10 Years in Prison for Attempting to Have Sex with a 13-Year-Old Girl in Japan

Miami, Florida – A Florida man was sentenced today to 10 years in prison for attempting to entice a minor to engage in illicit sexual conduct while he was working in Japan as a U.S. military contractor. 

Garrett Michael Pako, 29, is a United States Citizen who worked for a Department of Defense (DOD) contractor in Japan.  For months, Pako engaged in an online “relationship” with someone he believed to be a 13-year-old girl.  Pako met the girl on a proximity-based social media dating application while travelling in Okinawa.  During the relationship, Pako sent the girl sexually-explicit images and videos, including Hentai cartoons of young toddlers being sexually abused, and a video of himself masturbating.  Pako then attempted to arrange to have the purported girl fly to visit him in Northern Japan to have sex.  No meeting occurred.  Pako was later arrested.  

Pako is being prosecuted under the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act, which provides jurisdiction over certain offenses committed by United States citizens employed by the Department of Defense outside the United States.  Pako pled guilty to the charge on October 22, 2021.  U.S. District Judge Aileen M. Cannon imposed today’s sentence.

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. Led by the U.S. Attorney’s Offices and the Criminal Divisions Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), 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, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.

Juan Antonio Gonzalez, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida; and Julio Escareno, Resident Agent in Charge, U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Division, Japan Office, announced the sentence. 

This case was investigated by the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Division with support from the Air Force Office of Special Investigation and Naval Criminal Investigative Service.  This case was prosecuted by Southern District of Florida Assistant U.S. Attorneys Lacee Monk and Dayron Silverio and Trial Attorney Charles Schmitz of the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section. 

Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or at http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov, under case no. 21-cr-14021.

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