N Lauderdale "Sex Tourist" Pleads Guilty
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FT LAUDERDALE (CBSMiami) - A North Lauderdale man has pleaded guilty to federal sex tourism charges.
Prosecutors say Dennis De Jesus, 46, traveled to Colombia to have sex with two persons under the age of eighteen. He was also charged with enticing minors to engage in sexual activity and possession of child pornography.
DeJesus was arrested as part of a joint undercover operation into sex trafficking involving Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Homeland Security Investigations (ICE-HSI) and Colombia's Attorney General's Technical Investigative Corps Transnational Criminal Investigative Unit.
Last September, HSI in Bogotá received information that De Jesus intended to visit in October to have sex with underage girls.
HSI used a confidential informant to contact De Jesus via social media and have him detail plans of his trip.
On October 11, 2014, federal agents seized De Jesus's computer in which they found videos which depicted De Jesus with minors wearing costumes and masks. At least one of the recovered videos showed two minors engaging in sexual acts. They also found various costumes and masks in De Jesus' bedroom.
On is phone they found text messages between De Jesus, the undercover officer and two minors. In the messages, De Jesus said he planned to return to Colombia so he could have a private party with "minor females engaged in the sex tourism trade," according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
De Jesus also referenced a trip to Colombia in which he said he had sex with an underage girl.
The investigation further revealed that De Jesus had traveled to Medellin in June 2013 to have sex with underage girls.
De Jesus faces a mandatory minimum term of 10 years in prison up to a statutory maximum term of life in prison when he's sentenced on June 30th.
