Investigation led by ICE HSI in Washington, DC results in 5-year prison term for Ohio man

An investigation led by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Safety Investigations (HSI) Washington, D.C. area workplace landed a Cleveland, Ohio man in federal jail for making an attempt to solicit sexual exercise from somebody he believed to be a 13-year-old lady from Virginia.

Matthew Benjamin Foltz, 29, used an internet messaging utility to interact in sexually express conversations with an secret agent.

Foltz was sentenced April 25 to 60 months in federal jail after pleading responsible earlier this 12 months to 1 rely of persuading, engaging or coercing an individual to journey in interstate commerce to interact in sexual exercise.

“Mr. Foltz engaged in graphic, disturbing conversations with somebody he believed was a 13-year-old lady,” stated Particular Agent in Cost Ray Villanueva of HSI Washington, D.C. “Fortuitously, he was actually conversing with an secret agent. This man is a predator, who wished to abuse a younger lady. Because of our sturdy partnerships with native regulation enforcement, we had been capable of carry him to justice.”

In keeping with the investigation, HSI brokers, working with native regulation enforcement portrayed themselves as a 13-year-old lady dwelling in Roanoke, Va., and started an internet dialog on the messaging app with a person named “Macabre_return,” later decided to be Foltz.

A number of instances through the course of his on-line dialog with regulation enforcement, Foltz expressed his want to carry the 13-year-old lady again to his residence in Ohio in order that he might each impregnate her and train her the right way to please him sexually. Foltz, who additionally recognized himself by the alias “Michael Halliburton,” offered what he purported was {a photograph} of himself in addition to airline flight data for a visit to Ohio.

HSI is a directorate of ICE and the principal investigative arm of the U.S. Division of Homeland Safety (DHS), liable for investigating transnational crime and threats, particularly these prison organizations that exploit the worldwide infrastructure by which worldwide commerce, journey, and finance transfer. HSI’s workforce of over 10,400 staff consists of greater than 7,100 particular brokers assigned to 220 cities all through america and 80 abroad areas in 53 nations. HSI’s worldwide presence represents DHS’s largest investigative regulation enforcement presence overseas and one of many largest worldwide footprints in U.S. regulation enforcement.