Greenbelt, Maryland - Santos Nicolas Obando-Flores, age 46, of Brentwood, Maryland, pleaded guilty today to possession of child pornography. In 2015, Obando-Flores was convicted of a sex offense after engaging in sexual contact with a nine-year-old minor and was sentenced to 20 years in prison with all but six years suspended.
The guilty plea was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Robert K. Hur; Special Agent in Charge John Eisert of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI); and Colonel William M. Pallozzi, Superintendent of the Maryland State Police (MSP).
According to his guilty plea, on Sept. 13, 2018, Obando-Flores was being administered a routine polygraph examination by a Maryland State Police polygraph examiner. The routine polygraph was required because Obando-Flores was a registered sex offender. During the post-polygraph interview, Obando-Flores admitted to the polygraph examiner that he had viewed child pornography on his cellphone and that the pornography was still on the cellphone. Obando-Flores also admitted to having as many as one hundred videos containing child pornography on his phone.
The polygraph examiner stopped the interview and read Obando-Flores his Miranda Rights, which Obando-Flores acknowledged that he understood. Obando-Flores agreed to speak with law enforcement without an attorney present and again admitted to the MSP polygraph examiner that there was child pornography on his cellphone. He explained to the polygraph examiner that he got it from a Facebook page and that he received multiple videos of child pornography through a “group chat" from an application on his phone. Obando-Flores was able to describe some videos depicting prepubescent minors engaged in sex acts or provocatively posed. Obando-Flores admitted that he started getting the videos approximately six to eight months ago.
The polygraph examiner confiscated Obando-Flores’s cellphone, which Obando-Flores had brought with him to the scheduled meeting and Obando-Flores consented to the search of his phone. An MSP trooper previewed the phone and found numerous files of suspected child pornography. Obando-Flores was arrested and a federal search warrant was obtained from the phone. Forensic analysts identified approximately 359 videos and 200 images documenting the sexual abuse of minors.
As part of his plea agreement, Obando-Flores will be required to continue to register as a sex offender in the places where he resides, where he is an employee, and where he is a student, under the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA).
“Combatting the exploitation of children is a team effort and thanks to our collaboration with our local law enforcement partners, we have one less offender on the streets," said HSI Baltimore Special Agent in Charge John Eisert. “HSI is committed to continuing to work with our local law enforcement partners to pursue our goals of identifying and rescuing the victims of exploitation."
Obando-Flores faces a minimum mandatory sentence of 10 years and a maximum of 20 years in federal prison followed by up to lifetime supervised release. U.S. District Judge Peter J. Messitte has scheduled sentencing for Feb. 18, 2020 at 9:30 a.m.
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 Attorney’s 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 Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc. For more information about Internet safety education, please visit www.justice.gov/psc and click on the "Resources" tab on the left of the page.
United States Attorney Robert K. Hur commended HSI-Baltimore and the Maryland State Police for their work in the investigation. Mr. Hur thanked Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer R. Sykes, who is prosecuting the federal case.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
