Undocumented Mexican National Indicted for Sex Trafficking a Minor, Drug Crimes, and other Charges

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah - A federal grand jury in Salt Lake City returned an indictment charging an undocumented Mexican national, living in the United States illegally, with federal crimes, including sex trafficking a minor, production of child pornography, and multiple drug and firearm crimes.

Victor Manuel Sanchez-Chacon, aka "Speedy," 31, of Mexico, living in Taylorsville, Utah, was previously ordered detained by a U.S. Magistrate Judge.

According to the court documents, on November 9, 2024 and between August 27, 2023 and September 1, 2023, Sanchez-Chacon allegedly enticed a minor to engage in sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of producing child sexual abuse material. Beginning on October 25, 2023, Sanchez-Chacon allegedly recruited and enticed a minor to engage in a commercial sex act.

As alleged, between August 2024 and December 2024, detectives with the South Valley Special Enforcement Team (SET) opened an investigation into the trafficking of narcotics to juveniles at high schools in the Salt Lake Valley area. During the investigation, Sanchez-Chacon was identified as a trafficker. On May 15, 2025, agents with Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and task force officers from SET conducted a traffic stop on the vehicle Sanchez-Chacon was driving. During a search of the vehicle, officers seized drugs and other items. Subsequently, a residential search warrant was executed and law enforcement also seized three firearms, associated ammunition, and body armor. An Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations records check revealed Sanchez-Chacon does not possess valid immigration documents and entered the United States at an unknown date and time.

Chacon is charged with possession of cocaine with intent to distribute, possession of marijuana with intent to distribute, unlawful alien in possession of a firearm and ammunition, possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime, production of child pornography, and sex trafficking of a minor. His initial appearance on the indictment is scheduled for July 21, 2025, at 1:30 p.m. in courtroom 8.4 before a U.S. Magistrate Judge at the Orrin G. Hatch United States District Courthouse in downtown Salt Lake City.

Acting United States Attorney Felice John Viti for the District of Utah made the announcement.

The case is being investigated jointly by task force officers from the South Valley Special Enforcement Team (SET), Taylorsville City Police Department, Draper City Police Department and special assistance from Homeland Security Investigations, and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Assistant United States Attorney Carol A. Dain of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Utah is prosecuting the case.

This case is part of Operation Take Back America, a nationwide initiative that marshals the full resources of the Department of Justice to repel the invasion of illegal immigration, achieve the total elimination of cartels and transnational criminal organizations (TCOs), and protect our communities from the perpetrators of violent crime. Operation Take Back America streamlines efforts and resources from the Department's Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) and Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN).

This case was also 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 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 Justice.gov/PSC.

An indictment is merely an allegation and all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.