ALEXANDRIA, Va. – A Salvadoran national was sentenced today to 18 years in prison for attempted coercion and enticement of a minor to engage in illegal sexual activity, attempted sexual exploitation of a child, and illegally reentering the United States after removal subsequent to a felony conviction.
According to court records and evidence presented at trial, pursuant to an order of removal, Mario Alexander Bonilla Canales, 50, previously was removed from the United States on at least three occasions.
In June of 2025, Bonilla Canales used Facebook to contact a person he believed to be a 14-year-old girl, but who was actually an undercover law enforcement agent. Over three days, and directly after the undercover agent from the Fairfax County Police Department’s Child Exploitation Unit told him that she was 14, Bonilla Canales aggressively requested that she send him sexually explicit images and asked her to meet for sex. He eventually traveled to a park in Fairfax County to meet her for sex. When police attempted to stop him, he fled the scene, damaging two police vehicles and ignoring lights and sirens.
Theophani K. Stamos, First Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, and Kai Wah Chan, Acting Special Agent in Charge of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Washington, D.C., made the announcement after sentencing by U.S. District Judge Rossie D. Alston Jr.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jacob Mercer and Colt Rainwater prosecuted the case.
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. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), 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 .
For more information about HSI’s efforts to protect children from sexual predators, visit Know2Protect.gov.
Related court documents and information are located on the website of the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia or on PACER by searching for Case No. 1:26-cr-4.
Source: U.S. Attorney’s Office — Eastern District of Virginia — U.S. Department of Justice press release.