New Haven Man, 26, Charged After Traveling To Have Sex With Children He Coerced Online: Feds

NEW HAVEN, CT — A 26-year-old New Haven man was charged with several exploitation crimes, including "traveling to engage in sexual activity with minors he met and coerced online," according to David X. Sullivan, U.S. Attorney for Connecticut.

Sullivan and P.J. O’Brien, Special Agent in Charge of the New Haven Division of the FBI, said Marcos Alex Mendez Torres began communicating with an 11-year-old girl in Pennsylvania over the online game platform Roblox.

Between 2022 and 2024, Mendez Torres used the social media usernames “nozuto” and “demoniodedinero” to communicate with girls online and used Discord and Snapchat to communicate with the girl, prosecutors said.

Between 2023 and 2024, Mendez Torres also communicated via social media with another girl in Ohio beginning when she was approximately 12 years old, federal officials said.

In March 2024, Mendez Torres traveled to Pennsylvania to meet with and to engage in sexual activity with the then-13-year-old girl, Sullivan said, and then traveled back to Connecticut before returning briefly to Pennsylvania and continuing on to Ohio with the intention of engaging in sexual activity with the then-12-year-old girl residing there, federal investigators said and court records show.

According to Sullivan, the criminal complaint charges Mendez Torres with coercion and enticement of a minor, an offense that carries a mandatory minimum of 10 years in prison and a maximum of life; travel with intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct with children, an offense that carries a maximum of term of imprisonment of 30 years; and transfer of obscene materials to a minor, an offense that carries a maximum term of imprisonment of 10 years.

Mendez Torres has been detained since June 26, 2024, when he was arrested by the Connecticut State Police on child exploitation and kidnapping charges relating to a 15-year-old girl in Connecticut, Sullivan said.

He was transferred to federal custody and appeared last week in Hartford federal court.

Sullivan noted that investigators are seeking to identify additional victims and encouraged victims, witnesses, and anyone with helpful information to call 1-800-CALL-FBI (1-800-225-5324), or to contact the FBI online at tips.fbi.gov.

This investigation is being conducted by the FBI’s Child Exploitation Task Force, which includes federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies, with the assistance of the Connecticut State Police. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Alexis L. Beyerlein.

U.S. Attorney Sullivan stressed that a criminal complaint is only a charge and is not evidence of guilt. Charges are only allegations, and a defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.