ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Alexander M.M. Uballez, United States Attorney for the District of New Mexico, announced that Gilbert Gallegos was sentenced on Aug. 30 to 45 years in prison. Gallegos, 46, of Lordsburg, New Mexico, pleaded guilty on Jan. 29, 2021, to two counts of production of child pornography and one count of possession of child pornography.
According to court records, Gallegos coerced an 11-year-old victim to engage in sexual acts, which Gallegos recorded on his cellphone. On May 4, 2020, investigators with Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), executing a federal search warrant, recovered the videos from Gallegos’ phone, as well as another pornographic video involving two minor victims.
Upon his release from prison, Gallegos will be subject to five years of supervised release and must register as a sex offender.
HSI investigated this case with assistance from the Lordsburg Police Department and Las Cruces Police Department as part of the New Mexico Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force. Assistant United States Attorney Marisa A. Ong is prosecuting the case as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice (DOJ) to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by United States Attorneys’ Offices and DOJ’s Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, 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/.
The ICAC Task Force Program is a nation-wide network of task forces including over 90 federal, state, local and tribal law enforcement agencies in New Mexico dedicated to investigating, prosecuting and developing effective responses to Internet crimes against children.
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