Federal Jury Convicts North Port Man Of Producing And Possessing Videos Of Minors Engaged In Sexual Activity | United States Department of Justice
Francesco Abbruzzino, The Uncensored Report, LLC
DOJ
Fort Myers, Florida – United States Attorney Roger B. Handberg announces that a federal jury has found Raul Colon-Ocasio (32, North Port) guilty of producing visual depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct and possessing visual depictions of minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct. Colon-Ocasio faces a maximum penalty of up to 70 years in federal prison. His sentencing hearing is scheduled for July 19, 2024. Raul Colon-Ocasio was indicted on April 5, 2023.
According to evidence presented at trial, in September 2022, a mother called the police to report her minor child was missing. While trying to locate the child, the police observed social media communications between Colon-Ocasio and the child that were sexual in nature. The child was located by the police and returned home. In October 2022, an FBI Task Force Officer assumed the social media account of the child and began communicating with Colon-Ocasio. On October 18, 2022, instead of Colon-Ocasio meeting with the child, he was instead met by the police and his cellphone was seized.
A subsequent forensic analysis of Colon-Ocasio’s cellphone revealed numerous videos that he had produced of two minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct that he had saved and collected on his cellphone.
This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Fort Myers Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force, which includes the Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office that assisted in this investigation. It was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Yolande G. Viacava.
This is another case 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 the United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, 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.
