SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico – On April 9, 2026, U.S. District Court Judge Aida Delgado-Colón sentenced Félix Ebdiel Muñiz-Rivera to 240 months (20 years) in prison and 15 years of supervised release for sexual exploitation of two five-year-old female minors, announced W. Stephen Muldrow, United States Attorney for the District of Puerto Rico. Muñiz-Rivera was indicted on August 28, 2025, arrested on August 29, 2025, and plead guilty on December 18, 2025.
According to court documents, Félix Ebdiel Muñiz-Rivera, 21, of Camuy, Puerto Rico, from June 2025, through in or about August 2025, did knowingly employ, use, persuade, induce, entice, and coerce two five year old female minors to engage in sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of producing any visual depiction of such conduct, and the visual depiction was produced and transmitted using materials that have been mailed, shipped, and transported in and affecting interstate and foreign commerce, that is, a cellular phone device.
According to the facts admitted during the change of plea hearing, Muñiz-Rivera sexually assaulted two female minor victims and recorded the acts in his cellular phone. On August 7, 2025, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agents received a duty call from the Police of Puerto Rico (POPR) regarding a potential child pornography case. This occurred while the POPR were at a Public Housing Project in Quebradillas, Puerto Rico, conducting a drug trafficking operation. While at the scene, a POPR agent observed defendant Muñiz-Rivera engaging in what appeared to be a drug transaction. The officer went after the defendant, but he ran off, leaving his cellphone behind. The cellphone was unlocked and opened, and the agent was able to observe a video/image of a female infant, and close to the infant’s genital area, was a male adult genital member. Evidence obtained from a federal search warrant of defendant’s cellphone revealed another video produced by the defendant containing child sexual exploitation material with the two five-year-old female minor victims.
“The Department of Justice, the U.S. Attorney’s Office, and our law enforcement partners will aggressively investigate and prosecute those criminals who exploit and harm children,” said W. Stephen Muldrow, United States Attorney for the District of Puerto Rico. “I thank the dedicated Police of Puerto Rico and HSI agents and prosecutors who investigated and charged this case for their tireless efforts to protect the most vulnerable in our community. Exploitation of our children has no place in civilized society.”
HSI San Juan Acting Special Agent in Charge Yariel Ramos said: “Two decades behind bars underscore the profound gravity of crimes involving the sexual exploitation of children. This 20-year sentence reflects not only the enduring harm inflicted on victims, but also our unwavering resolve to hold offenders fully accountable.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Elba Gorbea of the Crimes Against Children, Human Trafficking and Immigration Unit, prosecuted the case. The Puerto Rico Crimes Against Children Task Force led by HSI was in charge of the investigation, with the collaboration of the Puerto Rico Police Department. To report suspicious activities, call 787-729-6969.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.justice.gov/psc .
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Source: U.S. Attorney’s Office — Puerto Rico — U.S. Department of Justice press release.