Idaho Falls man sent to federal prison for child pornography

IDAHO FALLS — A judge sent an Idaho Falls man to federal prison on Wednesday after investigators say he had thousands of images of child pornography.

Arnulfo Gonzalez-Torres, 23, will spend 63 months in federal prison after he pleaded guilty to federal felony possession of child pornography. Idaho Falls Police arrested Gonzalez-Torres in September 2019 after the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force traced the download of child pornography to his IP address.

U.S. District Judge David C. Nye handed down the sentence at the federal courthouse in Pocatello. Once released from prison, Nye ordered that Gonzalez-Torres be placed on 15 years of supervised release.

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According to an Idaho Falls Police report, detectives sent the images found to Project VIC, a non-profit that works to combat sexual exploitation of children, and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. NCMEC’s database recognized 946 of the images and 16 of the files had a victim identified. Police suspect over 2,500 images of child pornography were on Gonzalez-Torres’ computer.

At least one of the images downloaded contained a child under the age of 12, according to the federal charges.

Gonzalez-Torres “admitted to downloading, viewing and masturbating to images and videos of child pornography,” according to a Idaho Falls Police report.

At the time of his arrest, the Bonneville County Prosecutor’s office charged Gonzalez-Torres with three felony counts of possession of child pornography. When the federal charges came down, the state charges were dismissed to not interfere with the prosecution.

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Gonzalez-Torres will have to pay $5,000 to the United States under the Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act of 2015. Additionally, Nye ordered Gonzalez-Torres to pay $6,000 in restitution to the victims.

Once released from prison, Gonzalez-Torres will have to register as a sex offender.