El Paso man gets 10 years in FBI's Operation April Fools online teen sex sting
An El Paso man was sentenced to 10 years in prison for trying to have sex with a 14-year-old girl who turned out to be an undercover federal agent, the U.S. Attorney's Office said Wednesday.
Armando Rafael Mascorro, 36, pleaded guilty to one count of attempted enticement of a minor in October in federal court in El Paso, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
Last April, FBI agents arrested Mascorro as part of Operation April Fools, an undercover sting targeting the sexual coercion and enticement of minors online.
News: El Paso Police Department plans to buy 700 body cameras, equip officers in 2023
Mascorro was communicating with an undercover agent posing as a teen girl on the "MeetMe” social media text app, according to a complaint affidavit.
"Would you be mad if I was younger?" the agent, claiming to be 14, told Mascorro, the complaint stated.
In explicit text conversations, Mascorro detailed his sexual plans with the girl, saying he "had an attraction to younger women," according to the complaint.
Crime: El Paso police: 10-year-old boy recorded by restroom voyeur in Golden Corral restaurant
After a meeting with the "girl" was set up, Mascorro went to a home, parked in the driveway and knocked on the front door before he was arrested by agents, the affidavit stated.
"These prosecutions are crucial in making the internet safer for children," U.S. Attorney Ashley C. Hoff of the Western District of Texas said in a statement.
More: 'I knew this was gonna happen': Court documents detail FBI sting on those targeting minors for sex
After his prison term is completed, Mascorro will have to serve five years of supervised release and will be required to register as a sex offender, prosecutors said.
The case was investigated by the FBI and the El Paso Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force as part of Project Safe Childhood, a national initiative to combat child sexual exploitation that the Department of Justice began in 2006.
Daniel Borunda may be reached at 915-546-6102; dborunda@elpasotimes.com; @BorundaDaniel on Twitter.
This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: El Paso man gets 10 years in FBI online teen sex sting
