A Federal Way man was sentenced on Monday in U.S. District Court to 19 years, 10 months in prison and lifetime supervised release for receipt and possession of child pornography.
Andrew Mark Salazar, 66, pleaded guilty to the crimes in April, admitting that he directed women to perform sex acts on children while he watched the rapes via webcam.
The victims were all from impoverished families in the Philippines whose family members were paid to produce the videos and images, according to court documents.
Federal Way police arrested Salazar on May 28, 2014 when employees of a Sprint store called police after finding multiple photos of small girls involved in sex acts while transferring his phone data to a new phone.
During a search of his residence, located on Southwest 336th Street near Brigadoon Elementary, police found a suitcase containing explicit photos of children who appeared to be between the ages of 1 to 12 years old. Police also found approximately 80 videos and over 990 digital photos depicting minors, according to court documents.
Salazar directed several of the videos through the Yahoo chat service as he watched on a webcam. He arranged payment through Western Union and PayPal through the chats as well. He threatened to stop payment if they did not follow his directions.
A chat also revealed that he intended to fly to the Philippines to sexually assault the victims at some point.
“This defendant thought he could hide behind a computer screen while he reached across the world and horrifically damaged young children,” said U.S. Attorney Annette L. Hayes. “Stopping this kind of child exploitation is a top priority whether the victims are here at home or half way around the world. I commend those who reported the crime to law enforcement, and the agents and officers of the U.S. Secret Service and Federal Way Police Department who fully investigated and put an end to this criminal conduct.”
Salazar has a prior conviction for the rape of a 13-year-old girl in Texas in 1975.