Cherokee County Man Sentenced to 3 Years in Federal Prison For Possession of Child Pornography

Krystopher Cordeiro, age 23, from Cherokee, Iowa, was sentenced November 20, 2024, to more than 3 years in federal prison.

Evidence in the case established that between January 1, 2023, and September 26, 2023, Cordeiro possessed child pornography. In April and May of 2023, the National Center of Missing and Exploited Children received a CyberTip that Cordeiro's account had uploaded child pornography on four occasions. When law enforcement executed a search at Cordeiro's residence in September of 2023. Cordeiro admitted to searching for "teen porn", as well as possessing videos depicting sadistic and masochistic conduct, prepubescent children, and toddlers. Agents discovered over 200 images and 10 videos of actual child pornography and over 1,000 images and 133 videos of simulated children. Some of the simulated images were of such high quality they were virtually indistinguishable from real children engaging in sexually explicit conduct.

Cordeiro was sentenced in Sioux City by United States District Court Judge Leonard T. Strand. Cordeiro was sentenced to 36 months' imprisonment and ordered to pay $6,100 in fines and assessments. He was also ordered to pay $6,000 in restitution to the victims in the case. He must serve a five-year term of supervised release after the prison term. There is no parole in the federal system.

Cordeiro is being held in the United States Marshal's custody until he can be transported to a federal prison.

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. Led by the United States Attorneys' Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood 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 Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc. For more information about internet safety education, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc and click on the tab "resources."

The case was investigated by the Iowa Department of Public Safety, Division of Criminal Investigation, Cyber Crime Bureau and was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Kraig R. Hamit.

Court file information at https://ecf.iand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl.

The case file number is 23-CR-4080. Follow us on X @USAO_NDIA.