(USA-WDAR)
FORT SMITH – A Green Forest man was sentenced Thursday to 240 months in prison without the possibility of parole on one count of Transportation of Child Pornography. The Honorable Judge P.K. Holmes, III presided over the sentencing hearing, which was held in the U.S. District Court in Fort Smith.
According to court documents, in February of 2019, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) received information from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that an individual in Green Forest had posted images of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) to the social media platform Twitter. The resulting investigation identified the individual who had posted the CSAM files as 46-year-old Pedro Saldivar, Jr. In a subsequent interview, Saldivar admitted to trading items of CSAM with other users. Saldivar is a sex offender out of the State of Texas.
Saldivar was indicted by a Grand Jury in the Western District of Arkansas in September of 2022 and entered a plea of guilty in December of 2022.
U.S. Attorney David Clay Fowlkes of the Western District of Arkansas made the announcement.
Homeland Security Investigations Fayetteville, Green Forest Police Department, Eureka Springs Police Department, Fayetteville Police Department, and Springdale Police Department participated in the investigation of this case.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Carly Marshall and Assistant U.S. Attorney Devon Still prosecuted the case on behalf of the United States.
This case was prosecuted 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 U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and 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.justice.gov/psc.
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