MEXICAN NATIONAL RESIDING IN GEORGIA SENTENCED TO 120 MONTHS FOR ATTEMPTED COERCION AND ENTICEMENT OF A MINOR

United States Kurt L. Wall announced that U.S. District Court Judge Brian A. Jackson sentenced Victorino De La Cruz, age 43, of Mableton, Georgia, to 120 months in federal prison following his conviction for attempted coercion and enticement of a minor. The Court further sentenced De La Cruz to serve five years of supervised release following his term of imprisonment and ordered him to complete sex offender treatment and register as a sex offender upon his release. De La Cruz, a Mexican national who is present in the United States on a now-revoked work visa, may also be deported from the United States upon completing his sentence.

De La Cruz used social media applications and the name "Code_Magnolia" to convince someone he believed was a 14-year-old girl in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, to have an illegal sexual relationship with him. Over the course of several months, De La Cruz engaged in sexually explicit communications, among other things, to entice her to engage in sexual acts. The 14-year-old girl was actually an undercover law enforcement officer. De La Cruz also sent the undercover officer pictures of himself and his genitals and requested that she send him sexually explicit videos and images of herself. Further, De La Cruz asked for the undercover law enforcement officer's location, expressed his desire to engage in illegal sexual acts in person, and discussed and planned an arrangement with the undercover law enforcement agent where De La Cruz would visit the undercover law enforcement agent in Baton Rouge to engage in illegal sexual activity. De La Cruz was arrested by law enforcement in December 2024.

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Benjamin Anderson and Edward H. Warner, who also serves as Lead Homeland Security Task Force Trial Attorney, and Special Assistant United States Attorney Allen Ross.

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 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 http://www.justice.gov/psc.

This case was also 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 Homeland Security Task Force (HSTF) and Project Safe Neighborhood (PSN).