Charlotte Man Sentenced to Prison for Transporting Child Sexual Abuse Material Including Videos and Images of Infant Torture

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - Anthony Eliu Acevedo, 27, of Charlotte, was sentenced yesterday to 8 ½ years in prison followed by a lifetime of supervised release, $62,000 in restitution, $10,000 in special assessments, and was ordered to register as a sex offender for transporting child sexual abuse material (CSAM), announced Russ Ferguson, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of North Carolina.

"Acevedo had over 65 hours of videos depicting the abuse of children, from sadistic and masochistic conduct to the physical and sexual torture of an infant," said U.S. Attorney Russ Ferguson. "That material should not even exist. Those who spread it will find their way to federal prison."

According to filed court documents, in October 2023, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children received information related to an individual, later identified as Acevedo, uploading child sexual abuse material to an online storage account. One of the videos Acevedo uploaded to his online storage account depicted the physical and sexual torture of an infant. Law enforcement executed a search warrant in February 2024 at Acevedo's residence and recovered two cell phones and a laptop. A forensic analysis of the devices and Acevedo's online storage account revealed that Acevedo possessed more than 426 images and 999 videos of CSAM, including sadistic and masochistic conduct depicting children. If played without stopping, the videos depicting CSAM would run for 65.5 hours. The investigation further revealed that Acevedo used Telegram to obtain and pay for CSAM. During an interview with law enforcement, Acevedo said he intended to sell CSAM to others, though the investigation did not reveal evidence that he had sold any CSAM yet.

In sentencing Acevedo, U.S. District Judge Mattew E. Orso said that Acevedo possessed "a very large collection of some of the worst materials this Court has ever seen."

Acevedo remains in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service until he is transferred to the custody of the Federal Bureau of Prisons upon designation of a federal facility.

In making the announcement U.S. Attorney Russ Ferguson commended the FBI and the Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Department for their work on this case.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel Cervantes of the U.S. Attorney's Office in Charlotte prosecuted the case.

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 U.S. Attorneys' 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 exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit https://www.justice.gov/psc.