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Eduardo Silva, 42, didn’t know that he’d actually been texting and chatting online with an undercover federal agent and not an underage girl, U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito.
Silva asked whether the purported minor was “into older guys” while “discussing his intent to travel and engage in sexual activity” after reaching out on a social media app, Carpenito said.
“He also sent sexually explicit images of his genitals to the individual, whom he believed was a minor,” the U.S. attorney said.
U.S. Homeland Security agents were waiting Wednesday when Silva arrived at a Bordentown motel expecting an illicit – and illegal – encounter, he said.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Judge Zahid N. Quraishi ordered Silva detained during a teleconferenced appearance in federal court in Trenton on charges of enticing a minor to engage in sexual activity, crossing across state lines to for unlawful sexual conduct and sending obscene materials over the Internet.
Carpenito credited special agents of the Department of Homeland Security’s Homeland Security Investigations’ Cherry Hill Office with the investigation leading to Wednesday’s arrest.
He also thanked the Burlington County Prosecutor’s Office and the Bordentown Township Police Department for their assistance.
Handling the case for the government is Assistant U.S. Attorney Ray Mateo of Carpenito’s Criminal Division in Trenton.
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