MIAMI (WTVF) — An Antioch man was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison after prosecutors said he paid a 14-year-old girl in Colombia to produce sexually explicit videos and later traveled there to engage in commercial sex acts with her.
Ramon Arellano Sandoval, 64, was sentenced to 360 months in prison by U.S. District Judge Rodolfo A. Ruiz II after a jury convicted him in February 2026 of attempted sex trafficking of a minor and attempted production of visual depictions involving the sexual exploitation of a minor.
According to court records and evidence presented at trial, Arellano Sandoval exchanged thousands of text and video messages with the victim, who lived in rural Colombia and was 14 years old at the time.
Prosecutors said Arellano Sandoval repeatedly solicited sexually explicit videos from the victim despite knowing she was underage. Authorities said he directed her to produce child sexual abuse material in exchange for electronic payments.
Federal prosecutors also said Arellano Sandoval traveled to Colombia to have commercial sex with the minor victim.
“Ramon Arellano Sandoval targeted a 14-year-old child in Colombia, paid her to create child sexual abuse material, and then traveled overseas to exploit her in person,” U.S. Attorney Jason A. Reding Quiñones for the Southern District of Florida said in a statement.
“Today’s 30-year sentence makes clear that distance is no shield from justice,” Reding Quiñones said. “If you use the internet, money, or international travel to prey on a child, we will find you, prosecute you, and seek the full measure of federal punishment.”
Acting Special Agent in Charge José R. Figueroa of Homeland Security Investigations Miami said the sentence “underscores our unwavering commitment to combating human trafficking and protecting vulnerable children from exploitation.”
The case was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations Miami, with assistance from HSI Bogota, its Transnational Criminal Investigative Unit and the Customs and Border Protection Human Trafficking Unit.
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