Mexican Citizen Sentenced to 120 Months in Prison for Attempting to Entice a Minor for Sex Online

Spokane, Washington - Earlier today, United States District Court Judge Thomas O. Rice sentenced Timoteo Roque Roque to 120 months of imprisonment to be followed by a lifetime term of supervised release for the crime of Attempted Online Enticement of a Minor.

According to information disclosed in court documents and proceedings, on July 28, 2024, an undercover (UC) Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force Officer (TFO) was participating in an undercover enticement operation in Chelan County with a goal of identifying those who were baiting children online for illegal sex. The UC ICAC TFO was online portraying a 13-year-old child and received communication from the defendant, Roque Roque. During the communications, Roque Roque affirmed that he was interested in having sexual contact with minors and agreed to pay $250 for 30 minutes of sex with the child at a local hotel; he also agreed to bring condoms for the meet. Roque Roque later sent the UC a text saying he was at the hotel, but he saw a police vehicle and he thought it was a trap. He left the hotel, but continued communicating with the UC, who was purporting to be a 13-year-old child. He returned to the hotel about six hours later, once again with the agreement to pay $250 for sex with the child. Upon arrest, Roque-Roque ultimately admitted he was communicating with who he believed to be a 13 year old and traveled to the hotel twice in order to have sex with the child.

Roque Roque was illegally present in the United States at the time of this crime. He is a citizen and national of Mexico who was arrested and deported from the United States previously at San Luis, Arizona, on July 15, 2019.

"Investigations and prosecutions like these remain a high priority for my office, we simply have to protect our children from predators." U.S. Attorney Pete Serrano said. "Thanks to the excellent, collaborative investigative work by local and federal law enforcement, Mr. Roque Roque is now being held accountable for attempting to pay a local minor for sex while illegally present in the United States."

"This illegal alien represents the worst of the worst type of criminal who sought to conduct heinous abuse of a child, but fortunately in this case, the 'child' Roque Roque sought to harm was not real," said HSI Seattle acting Special Agent in Charge April Miller. "It is deeply troubling to learn although he was removed in 2019, he was roaming our streets seeking victims. HSI is committed to holding those who pose the greatest risk to public safety accountable for their actions and protecting the vulnerable."

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 United States Attorney's Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploitchildren via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit https://www.projectsafechildhood.gov

This case was investigated by the Homeland Security Investigations, Washington State Patrol, and the Seattle Police Department Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force, with assistance from the Chelan County Prosecutor's Office. This case was prosecuted by Assistant
United States Attorney Alison Gregoire.