KNOXVILLE Tenn. - Today, Zachariah Luaie Albaba, 33, a former teacher with the Knox County School system, currently of Rocky Top, Tennessee, was sentenced to two hundred and forty months in prison by the Honorable Katherine A. Crytzer, United States District Judge, in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee at Knoxville. Following his incarceration, Albaba will be on supervised release for his lifetime and will be required to register with state sex offender registries and comply with special sex offender conditions during his supervised release.

As part of the plea agreement filed with the court, Albaba agreed to plead guilty to an indictment charging him with one count of production of child pornographyin violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2251(a) and one count of attempted production of child pornography in violation of 18 U.S.C. 2251(a).

According to the filed plea agreement, on September 11, 2022, in the Eastern District of Tennessee, in two separate communications, Albaba contacted two minor boys in different locations via OMEGLE, an internet application which provides real-time video communications. The real-time video communications with the two boys were located on Albaba's cell phone. In each of the two videos, Albaba appears in the right-hand corner of the video requesting a male child to engage in sexual conduct and Albaba promises he will do likewise when the child is finished. One video shows a child engaging in sexual conduct, the other video does not. Neither boy has been identified.

U.S. Attorney Francis M. Hamilton III of the Eastern District of Tennessee; Special Agent in Charge, Rana Saoud of the Department of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI); and Acting Resident Agent in Charge, Lesley Cochran of the United States Secret Service (USSS) - Knoxville and Kentucky made the announcement.

The criminal indictment was the result of an investigation by the HSI; USSS; Knoxville Police Department-Internet Crimes Against Children Unit; Tennessee Internet Crimes Against Children; Kentucky Office of Attorney General; Campbell County Sheriff's Office; and Rocky Top Police Department. This investigation was led by HSI Task Force Agent Thomas Evans.

Assistant United States Attorney Jennifer Kolman represented the United States.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood (PSC), 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, PSC 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 PSC, please visit www.justice.gov/psc.

For more information about internet safety education, please visit www.justice.gov/psc/resources.html and click on the tab "resources."

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