District of New Mexico

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Alexander M.M. Uballez, United States Attorney for the District of New Mexico, announced that Augustin Gallegos pleaded guilty on Oct. 17 to production of child pornography. Gallegos, 37, of Portales, New Mexico, will remain in custody pending sentencing, which has been scheduled for Jan. 17, 2023.

According to the plea agreement and other court records, from approximately March 31, 2018, to May 16, 2019, Gallegos knowingly persuaded, induced, enticed and coerced a child, identified as Jane Doe, to engage in sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of producing child pornography. Gallegos engaged in sexual acts with the victim, who was approximately nine years old at the time, and photographed the acts. The images were later located on a memory card inside a Sony Cybershot digital camera.

By the terms of the plea agreement, Gallegos faces 18 to 23 years in prison and must register as a sex offender.

The case was investigated by the Roswell Resident Agency of the FBI Albuquerque Field Office and the Regional Computer Forensic Laboratory, with assistance from the Texico (New Mexico) Police Department, Portales Police Department, and 9th Judicial District Attorney's Office, as part of the New Mexico Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force. The ICAC Task Force Program is a nation-wide network of task forces including over 90 federal, state, local and tribal law enforcement agencies in New Mexico dedicated to investigating, prosecuting and developing effective responses to Internet crimes against children.

The United States Attorney's Office is prosecuting the case as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice (DOJ) to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by United States Attorneys’ Offices and DOJ's Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit http://www.justice.gov/psc/.

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