Leah B. Foley United States Attorney for the District of Massachusetts | Department of Justice
Antonio Merced, a 29-year-old from Worcester, was sentenced on March 26 to 30 years in prison for sexually exploiting three minor females. U.S. District Court Judge Margaret R. Guzman ordered that the federal sentence will run consecutive to Merced's existing state prison term. In July 2025, Merced pleaded guilty to three counts of sexual exploitation of a minor and one count of possession of child pornography.
The case is significant due to the nature and extent of the offenses, which involved multiple victims and documentation of abuse over several years.
According to court documents, in July 2024 Merced exposed two minors to pornography and sex toys. The investigation revealed he had been sexually abusing three children and producing videos documenting their abuse. Evidence included records from 2023 showing the abuse of a six-year-old child and videos created in 2024 involving two other children. At his plea hearing in July 2025, Merced admitted using all three minors to create explicit videos as well as possessing hundreds of images and videos depicting child sexual abuse involving children unknown to him.
Merced was arrested in September 2024 and later indicted by Worcester Superior Court. He was convicted on ten counts of aggravated rape of a child and received a state sentence ranging from twenty-five to thirty years.
United States Attorney Leah B. Foley; Ted E. Docks, Special Agent in Charge at the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Boston Division; and Worcester Police Chief Paul B. Saucier announced the sentencing decision. Assistant U.S. Attorney Kristen Noto prosecuted the case out of the Worcester Branch Office.
This prosecution is part of Project Safe Childhood, an initiative launched by the Department of Justice in May 2006 aimed at combating child sexual exploitation nationwide through coordinated efforts among federal, state, and local agencies.
