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Patrick John Anthony Coderre, a 53-year-old Ontario resident known as "T Ocean," turned up on law enforcement radar for possible child exploitation in March 2019, U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Philip R. Sellinger said Friday, Oct. 28.
Two undercover agents with the federal Department of Homeland Security's Homeland Security Investigation used three bogus identities to communicate with Coderre via text message, email, and Telegram Messenger, the U.S. attorney said.
Coderre expressed a "desire for sexual encounters with young children" during the exchanges, Sellinger said.
On Thursday, Coderre traveled from Canada to New Jersey "for what he believed would be a sexual encounter with one or more children at a hotel," the U.S. attorney said.
Agents waiting at the undisclosed location took him into custody, he said.
U.S. Magistrate Judge James B. Clark III denied Coderre's release, ordering him held without bail, during a videoconferenced first appearance Friday in Newark.
He's charged with travel to engage in illicit sexual conduct.
Sellinger credited the HSI special agents and thanked the New Jersey State Police for their assistance on the case, which is being handled for the government by Assistant U.S. Attorney Sarah A. Sulkowski of his Organized Crime/Gangs Unit in Newark.
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