United States Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Florida

06/16/2025 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 06/16/2025 12:26

Tampa Man Indicted For Attempted Enticement Of A Minor To Engage In Sexual Activity

Tampa, Florida - United States Attorney Gregory W. Kehoe announces the return of an indictment charging Johan Smith Pavon Mejia (Tampa, 41) with attempted enticement of a minor to engage in sexual activity. If convicted, Mejia faces a maximum penalty of life in federal prison.

According to the indictment and court records, in April 2025, Mejia communicated online with an undercover detective with the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office and arranged to meet a fictitious minor to engage in sexual activity. Mejia traveled to an agreed upon location to meet the fictitious minor and arrived with items requested by the undercover detective, including candy, iced tea, and money to pay for the arranged sexual acts.

An indictment is merely a formal charge that a defendant has committed one or more violations of federal criminal law, and every defendant is presumed innocent unless, and until, proven guilty.

This case was investigated by FBI Tampa and the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office. It will be prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Ilyssa M. Spergel.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by United States Attorneys' Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.

United States Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Florida published this content on June 16, 2025, and is solely responsible for the information contained herein. Distributed via Public Technologies (PUBT), unedited and unaltered, on June 16, 2025 at 18:26 UTC. If you believe the information included in the content is inaccurate or outdated and requires editing or removal, please contact us at support@pubt.io