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Eduardo Silva, 44, must serve the entire term because there’s no parole in the federal prison system. U.S. District Judge Renée Marie Bumb also sentenced him to lifetime supervised release during a hearing in federal court in Camden on Thursday, April 28.
Silva used a social media app to ask the “minor” whether she was “into older guys,” U.S Attorney Philip R. Sellinger said.
He then “sent a series of explicit online communications and text messages, discussing his intent to travel to meet the minor and engage in sexual activity with her,” Sellinger said.
Silva had actually been communicating with an undercover investigator. Federal agents were waiting when he showed up at a motel in Bordentown on Sept. 23, 2020.
Silva took a deal from the government rather than face trial, pleading guilty to coercion, enticement of a minor and traveling with the intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct with a minor.
In addition to the prison term, Judge Bumb sentenced Silva to lifetime supervised release.
Sellinger credited special agents of the Department of Homeland Security’s Homeland Security Investigations with the investigation leading to the plea and sentence, secured by Assistant U.S. Attorney Ray Mateo of his Opioid Abuse Prevention and Enforcement Unit in Newark.
He also thanked the Burlington County Prosecutor’s Office and Bordentown police for their assistance.
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