June 17, 2024 - FRESNO, Calif. — Christopher Contreras, 30, of Fresno was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge Jennifer L. Thurston to 15 years and nine months in prison for attempted coercion of a minor and enticement of a minor, U.S. Attorney Phillip A. Talbert announced.

The sentence includes 20 years of supervised release during which time Contreras’s access to minors, computers, and the internet will be restricted. Contreras was also ordered to register as a sex offender.

According to court documents, Contreras used the messaging applications Skout and Snapchat as well as text messages, to engage in sexually explicit communications for approximately one week with a person he believed to be a 13-year-old female. He then traveled to a location in Fresno on July 31, 2020, to meet the purported minor for sexual activity. He was actually communicating with undercover law enforcement investigators. They arrested Contreras and booked him into the Fresno County Jail where he was released on bail.

On Oct. 13, 2020, law enforcement officers responded to a call about a missing juvenile. An investigation confirmed that Contreras picked the juvenile up at a location in Fresno after making arrangements through messages on the Meet Me application. Contreras was arrested for numerous felony violations of California law and booked again at the Fresno County Jail. He was later charged federally in this case and has been in federal custody since June 10, 2021.

This case was the product of an investigation by the Central California Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, specifically Homeland Security Investigations with assistance from the Fresno County Sheriff’s Office and the Fresno Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorney David L. Gappa prosecuted the case.

This case was 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 those who exploit children via the internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit Justice.gov/PSC.
Source: DOJ Release