ALEXANDRIA, La. – United States Attorney Stephanie A. Finley announced today that an Alexandria man was sentenced to 20 months in prison for attempting to send obscene material to a minor.

William Ware, 40, of Alexandria, La., was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Dee D. Drell on one count of attempting to transfer obscene material to a minor. He was also sentenced to three years of supervised release and must register as a sex offender. According to the April 12, 2016 guilty plea, on December 9, 2014, Ware contacted what he believed was a 13-year-old minor female using social media over the internet. He then sent the purported minor two sexually explicit videos using an internet chat service. The minor was in fact an undercover law enforcement agent, and Ware was later arrested.

Homeland Security Investigations conducted the investigation.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Jamilla A. Bynog is prosecuting the case.

This case is part of Project Safe Childhood, a U.S. Department of Justice nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse.  Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s 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.projectsafechildhood.gov.

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security/Homeland Security Investigations/Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) also encourages the public to report suspected child predators and any suspicious activity through its toll-free hotline at (866) 347-2423.  Investigators are available at all hours to answer hotline calls. Tips or other information can also be submitted to ICE online by visiting their website atwww.ice.gov/exec/forms/hsi-tips/tips.asp or through the Operation Predator smartphone applicationwww.ice.gov/predator/smartphone-app. Tips may be submitted anonymously.