LOS ANGELES, CA – A Riverside man who was already required to register as a sex offender has been sentenced to 40 years in federal prison for using social media and other online platforms to solicit minors to create and send him sexually explicit material.
Ricardo Francisco Aguado, 30, was sentenced Aug. 21 to 480 months in federal prison, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California.
U.S. District Judge Sunshine S. Sykes also ordered Aguado to pay $3,200 in restitution and imposed lifetime supervised release following his prison term.
Aguado pleaded guilty April 24 to one count of production of child pornography and one count of committing a felony offense involving a minor while required to register as a sex offender.
He has remained in federal custody since August 2024.
Federal prosecutors said Aguado targeted minors between the ages of 12 and 15 over a period of several years.
The victims identified during the investigation lived in Florida, New York, South Carolina and Texas.
Investigators said Aguado typically contacted minors through social media, messaging services and other internet platforms before persuading them to produce sexually explicit images or videos of themselves.
In August 2020, Aguado befriended one young victim through Discord.
Prosecutors said he later used Discord, Snapchat, Instagram and other platforms to solicit sexually explicit material from the victim.
In some instances, Aguado offered money in exchange for the images or videos.
The conduct continued into 2022.
In May of that year, prosecutors said Aguado contacted a 14-year-old boy through Instagram and later communicated with him by cellphone.
Aguado arranged to pay the boy $40 through Cash App in exchange for sexually explicit photographs and videos, according to his plea agreement.
Days later, prosecutors said Aguado distributed one of the victim’s sexually explicit videos to another Snapchat user through his own account.
The investigation ultimately went far beyond those individual incidents.
A review of Aguado’s online accounts and electronic devices revealed communications with multiple minors over several years, according to federal prosecutors.
Authorities said he repeatedly solicited children to provide images depicting themselves engaged in sexually explicit conduct.
The case was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations with assistance from the Rockford Police Department in Illinois.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office said Assistant U.S. Attorney Sonah Lee of the Major Crimes Section prosecuted the case.
Aguado’s sentence was significantly affected by his prior criminal history.
In 2015, he was convicted in Riverside County Superior Court on multiple child sexual exploitation-related offenses, including possession and distribution of child pornography.
Those convictions required him to register as a sex offender for life.
He was sentenced to 40 months in California state prison in that earlier case and was released from state custody in 2017.
Federal law imposes enhanced penalties when a person required to register as a sex offender commits another felony involving a minor.
That prior status formed the basis for the second federal count to which Aguado pleaded guilty.
The new 40-year sentence is therefore separate from the punishment he already served in the earlier Riverside County case.
The government’s evidence relied heavily on Aguado’s digital communications and devices.
Online child exploitation investigations frequently involve examination of social media accounts, messaging histories, payment records and electronic devices to establish contact between suspects and minors.
In Aguado’s case, prosecutors said those records showed a pattern spanning multiple platforms and several years rather than a single isolated communication.
The case also illustrates how offenders may move conversations from one platform to another after establishing initial contact.
Aguado was accused of using Discord, Instagram, Snapchat and direct cellphone communications with victims.
Federal prosecutors said the children involved were scattered across several states, meaning the investigation crossed multiple jurisdictions.
The Department of Justice has increasingly emphasized internet-based child exploitation cases through Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative coordinating federal, state and local agencies against online sexual exploitation of minors.
The initiative focuses on identifying offenders, prosecuting internet-facilitated exploitation and locating victims whose abuse may be documented or distributed online.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office did not publicly identify Aguado’s victims.
Their names and other identifying information are typically withheld in cases involving minors and sexual exploitation.
The $3,200 restitution order is intended to compensate victims for qualifying losses associated with the offenses, though federal authorities did not publicly detail how that amount was allocated.
Lifetime supervised release means Aguado will remain subject to federal monitoring and court-imposed conditions if he is ever released from prison.
Those conditions can include restrictions on internet activity, contact with minors and other requirements imposed by the sentencing court.
The 40-year prison term represents the culmination of a case that began years after Aguado had already been convicted of similar offenses at the state level.
Federal investigators said his later conduct showed that he continued contacting and exploiting minors despite his prior conviction and lifetime sex-offender registration requirement.
Aguado remains in federal custody following the Aug. 21 sentencing.
