Description: Miami, Florida criminal defense lawyer represented Defendant charged with purchasing child pornography through a social networking application (an “online app”).
According to court records, beginning in April 2022, Andre Tookes, Jr. communicated with an unknown person in South Africa through a social networking application. Tookes, Jr. purchased dozens of child pornography videos from the South African for $70 on each of nine separate occasions. Law enforcement officers executed a search warrant on Tookes, Jr.’s residence and were able to uncover the communications on his seized phone. Tookes, Jr. pled guilty to receipt of child pornography.
U.S. Attorney Markenzy Lapointe of the Southern District of Florida and Special Agent in Charge Anthony Salisbury, HSI Miami, announced the sentence imposed.
HSI West Palm Beach investigated the case as part of a larger investigation into similar purchasers of child pornography. Assistant U.S. Attorney Gregory Schiller prosecuted the case.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood (PSC), 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 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 the Project Safe Childhood initiative and for information regarding Internet safety, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.
To report online child sexual exploitation, use the electronic Cyber Tip Line
or call 1-800-843-5678. The Cyber Tip Line is operated by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in partnership with the FBI and other law enforcement agencies.
(18:2252A(a)(2) and (b)(1) - ACTIVITIES RE MATERIAL CONSTITUTING/CONTAINING CHILD PORNO
(1)
Outcome: Imprisonment 97 months; Supervised Release 180 months
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