Jury Convicts Man Traveling To ATL To Have Sex With 9-Year-Old

ATLANTA, GA - A California man has been convicted on child sex charges after he flew from San Diego to Atlanta to have sex with a nine-year-old girl. Craig Alan Castaneda, 39, was also convicted this week after a three-day trial of enticing a minor to engage in illegal sexual activity. According to prosecutors, In early April 2015, an FBI agent acting in an undercover capacity posted an ad on Craigslist in which he portrayed himself as a mother in search of a “teacher” for her nine-year-old daughter. Castaneda responded to the ad the next day and described his previous experience in molesting children, including a child as young as four years old. He also said that he was “grooming” (that is, preparing) another child to be molested but that the family had moved away a few months earlier.

Castaneda continued to communicate with the undercover agent for the next several weeks, and he made plans to travel from San Diego to Atlanta. In one of his final communications with the undercover agent before boarding a plane, he instructed the mother to obtain sex toys and lubricant. FBI agents met the defendant when he arrived at the Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport in Atlanta on May 2, 2015, and arrested him.

Sentencing has not been scheduled.

Castaneda's conviction follows another similar verdict earlier this week also in Atlanta, where Yves Joseph Legault was sentenced for coercing and enticing the production of child sexual exploitation images over the Internet. Federal attorneys said Thursday that in July 2017, Legault, 54, met a 13-year-old Marietta girl on the website Omegle, a free online and anonymous text and video chat tool. After moving their communications to Google Hangouts, Legault asked the teen to perform sexual acts on live video-streaming for him. He eventually arranged to travel from Canada to Atlanta in order to have sex with the girl.

SEE ALSO: Canadian Jailed After Flying To ATL To Meet Marietta Teen For Sex

In February 2006, the Attorney General launched Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative designed to protect children from online exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorney’s Offices around the country, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children.

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