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PORTLAND, Ore.—Juan Carlos Ramon, 33, of Portland, was sentenced today to 180 months in federal prison followed by a life term of supervised release after sexually exploiting two minor victims, aged six and eight, using musical.ly, a social media mobile application now known as TikTok.
According to court documents, on or about June 28, 2017, Ramon began communicating with two minors using the musical.ly app. He used the screen name “@lexithetiger” and pretended to be a minor female. Ramon encouraged his victims to play a “Simon Says” type game where he would send sexually explicit photos of a minor female and ask his victims to take and send him photos imitating the positions and acts depicted. The minor victims agreed and sent Ramon a series of progressively more explicit self-produced images. A relative of the two victims later discovered the communications and reported it to law enforcement.
Ramon was arrested on November 16, 2017. He admitted that for several years he had knowingly chatted with and requested pornographic images from minor females ranging in age from 10-13 years old. Ramon had spent much of his adult life working in education, non-profit programming and family services.
On May 22, 2019, Ramon pleaded guilty to two counts of production of child pornography.
This case was investigated by FBI Portland’s Child Exploitation Task Force (CETF) and prosecuted by Natalie Wight, Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of Oregon.
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. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.
The FBI’s Child Exploitation Task Force (CETF) conducts sexual exploitation investigations – many of them undercover – in coordination with other federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies. The Portland FBI’s CETF consists of agents and task force officers from the Beaverton Police Department, Portland Police Bureau, Tigard Police Department, Hillsboro Police Department, and the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office. The FBI’s CETF is committed to locating and arresting those who prey on children as well as recovering underage victims of sex trafficking and child exploitation.
Anyone who has information about the physical or online exploitation of children are encouraged to call the FBI at (503) 224-4181 or submit a tip online at www.fbi.gov/tips.
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