EDGEWOOD, MD—An Edgewood man has been sentenced to prison on charges of sexually exploiting minors.

A judge has sentenced Lewis Ismael Blandon, 37, to 19 years in federal prison, followed by lifetime supervised release, for sexual exploitation of a child to produce a visual depiction of the sexual conduct. The judge also ordered that, upon his release from prison, Blandon must continue to register as a sex offender in the places where he resides, where he is an employee, and where he is a student, under the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (“SORNA”).

The sentence was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Erek L. Barron; Special Agent in Charge William J. DelBagno of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Baltimore Field Office; and Colonel Roland L. Butler, Jr., Superintendent of the Maryland State Police.

According to his guilty plea between 2002 through 2006, Blandon sexually abused a minor victim who was 12 years old at the time the abuse began. Blandon coerced and enticed the victim to engage in the sexual conduct by using cell phone calls to arrange visits and using the chat feature on video games. In addition, between 2020 and 2021, Blandon used several different online accounts with social media companies to exploit his victims. Using a variety of aliases and handles on these platforms, Blandon communicated with several minor males, coercing and enticing them to produce sexually explicit images. Blandon admitted that he also sent images of his own genitalia to the minor males in order to cause them to reciprocate. Finally, Blandon also distributed commercially available child pornography on a messaging application to another user.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse.

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