Category: FBI

Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) State Crime Alerts (c)

Gregory J. Haanstad, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Wisconsin, announced that on August 31, 2023, Cory J. Herthel (age: 40) of Green Bay, Wisconsin, pled guilty to attempted sexual exploitation of a minor, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 2251(a).

Herthel will receive a federal prison sentence of at least 15 years when he is sentenced on December 4, 2023. He will also be required to register as a sexual offender under state and federal law.

According to a plea agreement filed in the case, in May of 2023, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was contacted by the church where Herthel was employed as a pastor regarding information it had obtained indicating that Herthel possibly had been involved in an inappropriate sexual relationship with a minor living in Venezuela. An ensuing investigation revealed that Herthel sent the child videos of himself masturbating, and at Herthel’s request, the minor sent similar videos and images to the pastor.

Herthel acknowledged knowing the minor from a mission trip he had taken to Ecuador, where he met the child begging on the streets. The child and the child’s mother had returned to their native Venezuela, and Herthel kept in touch with the child. Herthel was confronted with images of him masturbating and acknowledged sending the videos to the child whom he knew to be a minor. Herthel was also asked about sexually explicit images and masturbation videos that the child sent him. He acknowledged asking the child for the images and videos. He also acknowledged sending the child monetary payments via various online applications. 

This investigation is a 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 www.justice.gov/psc.

This case was investigated by the Green Bay and Milwaukee offices of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) with the assistance of the Green Bay Police Department. It is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Daniel R. Humble.

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For Additional Information Contact:

Public Information Officer

Kenneth.Gales@usdoj.gov

414-297-1700

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Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) State Crime News

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – An Indictment from earlier this year in the Western District of Missouri Federal Court charging individuals with escaping confinement and other individuals with assisting them, resulted in an incarceration sentence of 16 months for one of those charged, consecutive to a pending State of Missouri case.

Trevor Scott Sparks, 33, Kansas City, MO, and Sergio Perez Martinez, 43, Panorama City, CA, were charged in a two-count Indictment with escape from confinement and aiding or assisting each other in escape from confinement.  Another individual, John Douglas Baxter, 57, of Blue Springs, MO, was also charged in the Indictment with a single count of aiding or assisting in the escape. 

As of the drafting of this release, Perez Martinez remains at large, although Sparks was re-arrested December 30^th, 2022. Baxter, who has been in custody pending resolution of his charges since Sparks was captured, was sentenced today for his role in assisting that escape.  The Court sentenced him to 16 months in custody, consecutive to any sentence he may receive in a pending state case that resulted from Missouri moving to revoke his parole from a prior state felony conviction.

After arrests on federal felony warrants, and because of jury trial convictions and guilty pleas to various felony charges contained within several Western District of Missouri (WDMO) Federal Grand Jury indictments and various orders of WDMO Federal District Court Judge D. Greg Kays, Trevor Scott Sparks and Sergio Perez Martinez were confined in the Cass County, Missouri, Jail on multiple federal felonies.

Federal, state, and local law enforcement began investigating the escape of Sparks and Martinez from the Cass County Jail on or about December 5, 2022. On December 6, 2022, the United States Marshals Service was notified by Cass County, Missouri, that Sparks escaped from confinement and was seen leaving the facility at 10:22 p.m. on December 5, 2022. It was later determined that Sparks and Martinez, another inmate in the Cass County facility, escaped through subterfuge and damage to the facility from the Cass County Jail and fled east outside the jail into the surrounding rural community. From there, a co-defendant picked them up in his vehicle and transported them to his apartment in Kansas City, Missouri, where they obtained clothes and food. They were then transported into the Northeast area of the Kansas City metropolitan area.  Sparks and his mother, Co-Defendant Dawn Branstietter, were subsequently arrested in this same general area on December 30, 2022.  Branstietter’s husband, Defendant Baxter, was also later arrested on the same aiding escape charges.  Branstietter and Baxter provided food, clothing, and housing to Sparks while Sparks was a fugitive.  Branstietter is scheduled for sentencing Thursday. 

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Bruce Rhoades and Robert Smith. It is being investigated by the United States Marshal Service, the Federal Bureau of Investigations, the Kansas City Police Department, and the Cass County Sheriff’s Department with other law enforcement agencies also assisting

Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) State Crime Alerts (c)

Tacoma – A second defendant who joined in the attacks on power substations as part of a burglary scheme, pleaded guilty today in U.S. District Court in Tacoma, announced Acting U.S. Attorney Tessa M. Gorman. Jeremy Crahan, 40, admits he joined with 32-year-old Matthew Greenwood in a conspiracy to knock out power so they could rob ATM machines. Chief U.S. District Judge David G. Estudillo scheduled sentencing for December 8, 2023.

According to the facts in the plea agreement, Greenwood and Crahan hatched the scheme to disrupt power so they could break into ATMs and businesses and steal money. On December 25, 2022, they damaged four substations:

• Hemlock Substation in Puyallup, Washington, owned by Puget Sound Energy. Here, the two cut through a fence and Greenwood manipulated a switch damaging equipment and cutting power for 8,000 customers.
• Elk Plain substation in Spanaway, Washington, owned by Tacoma Power. The men cut padlocks on the gate and Greenwood manipulated breakers to damage equipment and cause an outage.
• Graham substation in Graham, Washington, operated by Tacoma Power. The men cut through a perimeter fence and Greenwood manipulated a switch to damage equipment. This outage, combined with the Elk Plain substation outage, caused more than 7,500 customers to lose power.
• Kapowsin Substation in Graham, Washington, operated by Puget Sound Energy. The men cut through a fence and Greenwood tampered with a switch causing sparks, flame, and a power outage.

Crahan admits that he shared in the plannings and primarily served as a lookout during the attacks on the substations.

Following the December 25, 2022, substation vandalism, the men spent time looking for additional ways to cause power outages by felling trees. The goal was to cut power so that they could burglarize businesses and steal from ATMs. Law enforcement arrested them before they could put the tree plan into action.

The FBI is investigating the case with assistance from the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives (ATF), the Tacoma Police Department, the Washington State Department of Corrections, and the Federal Protective Service.

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Todd Greenberg.

Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) State Crime Alerts (b)

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Trevor Scott Sparks, a Kansas City, Missouri, federal defendant who escaped after trial and was recaptured, was sentenced in federal district court today for his role in leading a $4.1 million heavily armed drug-trafficking conspiracy, and directing two kidnappings, both resulting in murders, and numerous assaults.  The drug trafficking organization (DTO) Sparks led distributed approximately 400 kilograms of methamphetamine in the Kansas City and St. Louis metropolitan areas in 2017 and 2018.

Sparks, 34, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Greg Kays to life imprisonment, plus 60 months consecutive, in federal prison without parole on the drug, money, and gun charges, all consecutive to 33 months for the escape.  The court also ordered Sparks to pay a money judgment of $400,000.00, which represents the profits he received from the drug-trafficking conspiracy. That forfeiture amount is based on the unlawful distribution of approximately 100 kilograms of methamphetamine, based on an average street sale price of $7,500.00 per kilogram, and an average cost to the DTO of $3,500.00 a kilogram.  Sparks and the co-conspirators he supplied are believed to have distributed approximately 400 kilograms of methamphetamine in less than 2 years.

On November 7^th, 2022, Sparks was found guilty by a jury of all counts presented during the weeklong trial.  The charges included participating in conspiracies to distribute methamphetamine and launder drug proceeds from January 1, 2017, to December 18, 2018, possessing firearms in relation to that drug-trafficking crime, and to being a felon in possession of firearms and ammunition.  Sparks and several of his co-conspirators were arrested out of a residence on Smart Avenue in the Northeast area of Kansas City, Missouri, on December 18, 2018.  Located in that residence were numerous firearms, cocaine, methamphetamine, marijuana, United States currency, drug ledgers, and other indicia of drug trafficking.  This is the same residence where at least two of the DTO related assaults occurred.   

While no one was charged with nor convicted at trial of it, members of the Sparks DTO were found responsible at sentencing by the Court for two murders. In early August 2018, James “Old School” Hampton was seized in St. Louis by members of the Sparks DTO at the direction of Sparks.  Hampton was seized because the drug conspiracy was convinced Hampton could help find the drugs and money stolen by co-conspirator David Richards. When they realized Hampton could not or would not help, Hampton was restrained, beaten, and tortured. Hampton was then kidnapped and transported from St. Louis to Kansas City in the trunk of his own car. Brittanie Broyles, who was with Hampton and witnessed him being beaten, tortured, restrained, and kidnapped, was also kidnapped and taken to Kansas City.  Once in Kansas City, Hampton was left in the trunk of his car and he and his car were secreted in a co-conspirator’s garage near the Smart residence. Broyles managed to obtain control of another co-conspirator’s cellular telephone and surreptitiously send text messages to friends and family in St. Louis about her and “Old School’s” plight.  Once that was discovered by the DTO, Sparks directed the DTO to move from one hotel to another, thereby thwarting efforts to locate Broyles. Her friends and family and law enforcement were unable to locate her before she was murdered by members of the Sparks DTO.

On August 6, 2018, Hampton’s car and body were discovered burning in Bates City, Missouri.  This was after members of the DTO retrieved Hampton’s car (and body) from the secreted location and Sparks directed them to take it and burn it because of the odor emanating from the vehicle and to destroy the evidence and Hampton’s body.  Witnesses and video identified Co-Defendant Gerald Lee Ginnings of Grandview, Missouri, being followed by Co-Defendant Markus Michael A. Patterson, of Kansas City, Missouri, in another co-conspirator’s car, as Ginnings drove Hampton’s car with his body in the trunk to Bates City, Missouri, where it was found by the Sni Valley Fire Department fully engulfed.  Once they extinguished the flames, Hampton’s desecrated body was found in what was left of the trunk.  Sparks forgave a drug debt of Ginnings for this duty.    

On August 8, 2018, Broyles’s body was recovered near the Super Flea in the Northeast area of Kansas City, Missouri. She had been murdered by two gunshots to her head.  While not charged nor convicted of it, the Court at sentencing found that witnesses and evidence implicated Sparks in ordering her killing because of what she knew about Hampton.  Ginnings and Patterson were likewise implicated as the two responsible for this murder.  Ginnings was sentenced August 25, 2023, to 520 months in federal prison on similar charges to Sparks.  Co-Defendant Patterson was sentenced August 17, 2023, to 560 months on the same charges.   

Under federal law, it is illegal for anyone involved in drug trafficking to possesses firearms related to that trafficking and it is also illegal for anyone who has been convicted of a felony to be in possession of any firearm or ammunition. Sparks has prior felony convictions for robbery, drug offenses, and assault.

Sparks was the main defendant over two indictments with 32 co-defendants, all who have pleaded guilty and been sentenced in those two cases.

On December 6, 2022, Sparks and fellow federal inmate Sergio Perez-Martinez escaped the Cass County jail where they were being held for sentencing in their respective federal cases.  On December 30, 2022, Sparks was apprehended in the Northeast area of Kansas City, Missouri.  Also charged in that escape case was Perez-Martinez (still at large), Sparks’ mother and stepfather, and another man, who was the co-conspirator that stored the car with Hampton in it.  Sparks was also sentenced today for that escape to which he pled guilty on June 28, 2023.    

These cases were prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Bruce Rhoades and Robert M. Smith. They were investigated by the Kansas City, Mo., Police Department, the Sni Valley Fire Department, the Jackson, Lafayette, Buchanan, Phelps, and Cass County, Mo., Sheriff’s Departments, the FBI, the Jackson County Drug Task Force, the Missouri State Highway Patrol, and the St. James, Mo., Police Department.

Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) State Crime Alerts (c)

Seattle – The former Finance Director at two Seattle area non-profits was sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Seattle to 41 months in prison for embezzling more than $3 million from her employers, announced Acting U.S. Attorney Tessa M. Gorman. Susana Tantico, 63, of Renton, Washington committed the embezzlement over an eleven-year period. At the sentencing hearing, U.S. District Judge James L. Robart said, he could not understand how Tantico went from defrauding one non-profit to another, especially since the first provided medical care to immigrant communities. “You were leaving people who are sick today without the money to treat them,” Judge Robart told Tantico.

“Ms. Tantico chose to victimize non-profit organizations, whose work is critical to our community: one employer provided medical care to those who cannot afford it; the other works to assist youth in the criminal justice system,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Gorman. “But over 11 years, knowing she was putting critical services at risk, she stole millions to finance her mortgage, pay for her vacations, and finance her gambling losses.”

According to records filed in the case, in 1999 Tantico began working for a non-profit that provides healthcare to underserved populations. Ultimately, Tantico became the non-profit’s Finance Director. Between 2011 and June 2020, Tantico secretly embezzled millions of dollars from the healthcare organization. Bank records are available only for the period beginning in December 2016. Between December 2016 and 2020, Tantico stole nearly $2.3 million from the healthcare non-profit. She used the non-profit’s debit and credit cards to withdraw $1.6 million at casinos for gambling. She also used the debit and credit cards to pay for personal vacations, such as a $26,000 family trip to Florida, and trips to Las Vegas and San Diego. Tantico also used the healthcare non-profit’s debit and credit cards for more than $83,000 worth of purchases at Nordstrom, and $40,000 worth of purchases at Apple stores.

After running up these expenses, Tantico used the non-profit’s funds to pay the credit card bills and disguised the payments as legitimate expenses. For example, she categorized expenses for one vacation as “pharmacy supplies” in the accounting system. Throughout this timeframe, Tantico told the non-profit auditors that she was aware of no fraud at the non-profit. 

In 2020, Tantico went to work as Finance Director for a different non-profit — one with a focus on criminal justice issues. Tantico used more than $485,000 of the non-profit’s funds for gambling at casinos. She transferred $21,000 from the non-profit to her mortgage servicer to pay her home mortgage. She also transferred money to her personal bank account. Tantico then altered the bank records to hide the embezzlement. 

At one point, Tantico was questioned by one of the organization’s banks about the pattern of withdrawals at casinos. She claimed that the non-profit held youth programs at the casinos, and that the withdrawals were for cash prize giveaways. In all, Tantico stole nearly $893,000 from the non-profit. The non-profit has incurred $132,000 in costs to forensically audit its books, fix its accounting procedures and records, and reply to vendors.

In court today, Dominique Davis spoke about the impact of the embezzlement on his organization, Community Passageways. “This was rough, this betrayal of trust. It almost ruined our whole organization. We barely survived this. We were made out to be villains,” Davis told the court.

In recommending a 41-month sentence, Assistant United States Attorney Seth Wilkinson noted, “Tantico abused positions of trust. Tantico was hired (twice) to safeguard the finances of her employers, and they trusted her to manage the funds with integrity. Instead, Tantico not only stole the money, but used her position to hide her theft. She created phony accounting entries that made her expenditures look like business expenses. She doctored bank statements. She lied to auditors. And she showed extreme duplicity by developing financial policies prohibiting the personal use of corporate credit cards, while knowing she was stealing millions of dollars by doing exactly that.” Tantico’s theft averaged about $550,000 per year between 2016 and 2022.

In court today, Tantico said “I am truly sorry… They were my work family…. It’s like I was two separate people…. I always meant to fix it.”

Following prison, Tantico will be on three years of supervised release. She has a restitution obligation of $3,121,572. She provided the court with a $60,000 check today from the sale of her home.

The case was investigated by the FBI. 

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Seth Wilkinson.

Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) State Crime News

SIOUX FALLS – United States Attorney Alison J. Ramsdell announced today that U.S. District Judge Karen E. Schreier has sentenced a Crockett, Texas, man convicted of Bank Larceny. The sentencing took place on August 30, 2023.

Keivon Jones, 26, was sentenced to 21 months in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release. He was ordered to pay approximately $100,000 in restitution and $100 as a statutorily required special assessment to the Federal Crime Victims Fund.

Jones, along with his co-defendants, were indicted for Bank Larceny and Transportation of Stolen Money by a federal grand jury in September of 2022. Jones pleaded guilty on May 8, 2023.

Three co-defendants were previously sentenced in this case:

• Kytorrion Young, age 32, was sentenced to 23 months in federal prison;
• Kendrick Kennedy, age 24, was sentenced to six months in federal prison; and
• Alton Himes, age 25, was sentenced to 19 months in federal prison.

According to court documents, on December 2, 2021, in the early morning hours, Jones, and his three co-defendants, approached an automated teller machine (ATM) belonging to Dakotaland Federal Credit Union located in Madison, South Dakota. One of the vehicles that Jones and his co-defendants were driving at that time was a stolen Ford F-350 pickup truck. The truck was stolen from a parking lot located on the campus of South Dakota State University in Brookings, South Dakota. 

Jones and his co-defendants used the stolen truck and towing equipment, including straps and J-hooks, to physically break into the ATM and remove three cash boxes. After forcefully removing the boxes, Jones and his co-defendants stole the boxes and fled the area in the stolen pickup truck. They then traveled across state lines with the stolen cash. 

The ATM was destroyed in the process of the larceny and was deemed a total loss, costing over $30,000 to replace. The total amount of cash stolen was $32,300, and it belonged to Dakotaland Federal Credit Union.

Jones’s co-defendants – Kytorrion Young, Alton Himes, and Kendrick Kennedy – knowingly participated with Jones in carrying out bank larceny.

This case was investigated by FBI. Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeremy R. Jehangiri prosecuted the case.

Jones was immediately remanded to the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service.

 

 

Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) State Crime Alerts (c)

McALLEN, Texas – A 50-year-old man from Rio Grande City has pleaded guilty to extortion under color of law, announced U.S. Attorney Alamdar S. Hamdani.

Victor Canales was a Starr County attorney from 2005 to 2022. In that role, he was responsible for prosecuting misdemeanor crimes.

In September 2021, a woman reached out to Canales for assistance because her son had been charged with three misdemeanor offenses in Starr County. He said he could help her and that for $1500, he could take care of the Starr County tickets. 

The mother gave Canales three money orders totaling $1500. He deposited the proceeds into his own checking account and used it for his own personal needs rather than depositing the monies into the Starr County account. 

Canales then sent a series of letters to Cameron County indicating the three charges against the woman’s son would be dropped.

U.S. District Judge Ricardo Hinojosa accepted the plea and set sentencing for Dec. 15. At that time, Canales faces up to 20 years in prison and a possible $250,000 maximum fine.

Canales was permitted to remain on bond pending sentencing.

The FBI worked in partnership with the Texas Office of the Attorney General to conduct the Border Corruption Task Force investigation with the assistance of Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Forces agencies including the Drug Enforcement Administration, Homeland Security Investigations, Texas Department of Public Safety – Criminal Investigations and Texas Rangers.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Pat Profit is prosecuting the case.

Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) State Crime News

BOSTON – A Boston man pleaded guilty yesterday to his involvement in a sophisticated international money laundering and drug trafficking organization.

Mariano Santana, 57, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit money laundering. U.S. District Judge Angel Kelley scheduled sentencing for Nov. 30, 2023.

In May 2023, Santana was among 12 individuals from Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York and California charged in a superseding indictment for their alleged involvement in a sophisticated international money laundering and drug trafficking organization allegedly led by Jin Hua Zhang.

According to the charging documents, Zhang allegedly laundered bulk cash for drug dealers and laundered profits from other illegal businesses for a fee. It is alleged that, during the investigation, Zhang directed his co-defendant couriers, and others, to deliver to undercover agents hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash and millions of dollars in wire transfers and bank deposits. In total, Zhang and his organization allegedly laundered at least $25 million worth of drug proceeds and funds from other illegal businesses traced to Hong Kong and elsewhere in China, India, Cambodia, and Brazil, among other locations. 

Santana was a courier who dropped off drug money to be laundered by the Zhang organization. On two separate occasions in June 2022, Santana delivered bulk cash deliveries of illicit proceeds to a cooperating witness in a Quincy parking lot. Specifically, on June 2, 2022, Santana provided the individual with a bag containing $30,000 in cash. On June 7, 2022, Santana delivered $29,800 in cash,  

The charge of money laundering conspiracy provides for a sentence of up to 20 years in prison, up to three years of supervised release and a fine of up to $500,000, or twice the amount involved, whichever is greater. Sentences are imposed by a federal district court judge based upon the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and statutes which govern the determination of a sentence in a criminal case.

Acting United States Attorney Joshua S. Levy and Jodi Cohen, Special Agent in Charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Boston Division made the announcement today. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Christopher Pohl, Brian A. Fogerty and Meghan C. Cleary of the Criminal Division are prosecuting the case.

The details contained in the charging documents are allegations. The remaining defendants are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) State Crime News

NEW ORLEANS, LA – United States Attorney Duane A. Evans announced that TYRONE SMOTHERS, age 41, of New Orleans, Louisiana, was charged by a Federal Grand Jury on August 4, 2023, in a previously sealed three-count indictment for violations of the Federal Gun Control and Federal Controlled Substances Acts.  The court unsealed the matter on September 1, 2023.  Specifically, he is charged with possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance in violation of Title 21, United States Code, Sections 841(a)(1), 841(b)(1)(C), and 841(b)(1)(D); possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 924(c)(1)(A)(i); and one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Sections 922(g)(1) and 924(a)(8).

According to court documents, SMOTHERS was previously convicted of felony offenses in Orleans Parish. Due to his criminal history, he is prohibited from having a firearm. He is now charged with possessing multiple firearms on May 17, 2023.  He is further alleged to have possessed fentanyl, cocaine, methamphetamine, and marijuana with the intent to distribute and possessed the firearms in furtherance of that drug trafficking offense.

If convicted of possession with intent to distribute, SMOTHERS faces a maximum of twenty (20) years imprisonment, a fine of up to $1,000,000.00, and at least three (3) years of supervised release. If convicted of possession a firearm during a drug trafficking crime, he faces a minimum of five (5) years and a maximum of life imprisonment, a fine of up to $250,000, and up to five (5) years of supervised release. If convicted of possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, he faces a maximum of fifteen (15) years imprisonment, a fine of up to $250,000, and up to three (3) years of supervised release.  For each count of conviction, SMOTHERS faces a mandatory special assessment fee of $100.00.

U.S. Attorney Evans reiterated that the indictment is merely a charge and that the guilt of the defendant must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt.  

This case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a program bringing together all levels of law enforcement and the communities they serve to reduce violent crime and gun violence, and to make our neighborhoods safer for everyone.  On May 26, 2021, the Department launched a violent crime reduction strategy strengthening PSN based on these core principles: fostering trust and legitimacy in our communities, supporting community-based organizations that help prevent violence from occurring in the first place, setting focused and strategic enforcement priorities, and measuring the results.

U.S. Attorney Evans praised the work of the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the New Orleans Police Department in investigating this matter. The case is being prosecuted by Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Nicholas Rayburn of the Violent Crime Unit.

Source: Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) State Crime Alerts (c)

CLARKSBURG, WEST VIRGINIA – Scott David Bixler, age 42, of Morgantown, West Virginia, has been charged with failure to update his sex offender registration.

According to court documents, Bixler, a registered sex offender, and his wife traveled from their home in Morgantown to Mexico, crossing the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas. Bixler didn’t inform the West Virginia State Police, as required, of his international travel plans. The Bixlers were arrested in Mexico for possession of methamphetamine after authorities there learned that Bixler was attempting to purchase a 7-year-old girl for $5,000. At the time of the arrest, Bixler and his wife had two tranquilizer air guns and a cellphone signal jammer in their possession.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Sarah Wagner is prosecuting the case on behalf of the government.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation, the United States Marshals Service, and the West Virginia State Police investigated.

An indictment is merely an allegation, and the defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.