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Maryland resident Jeffrey Darnell Alderson, 34, of Waldorf, was sentenced on Friday, May 12, to 42 months in prison, followed by five years of supervised release, after admitting to possession of child pornography earlier this year.
Alderson’s downfall came after a man in Philadelphia was arrested in January 2020 for promoting and selling child sexual abuse material and identified him as a customer through social media and financial records.
At the time, Alderson was working with the Department of Homeland Security.
Prosecutors say that specifically, Alderson engaged in several conversations through messaging apps between September 2019 and January 2020 and ultimately purchased links to child sexual abuse material that documented the sexual abuse of minor boys, including prepubescent minors.
He was busted in October 2020 when federal search warrants were executed for the contents of multiple online accounts.
A review of those accounts led to the revelation of conversations with other users whose usernames indicated an interest in child sexual abuse material and searches and visits to websites related to child sexual abuse material.
The following March, investigators searched the contents of Alderson’s online storage account, which led to the discovery of additional images of minors, and in May 2021, FBI agents seized his cell phone, which included additional illicit chats and child porn materials.
According to officials, the child pornography that Alderson possessed included prepubescent minors and material portraying the sexual abuse of exploitation of an infant or toddler.
In total, Alderson possessed over 100 videos and hundreds of images containing child pornography.
When he is released from prison, a judge also ordered that Alderson register as a sex offender wherever he lives or works.
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