JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A joint Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Jacksonville multistate investigation has led to the guilty plea of a California man accused of producing a photo of him sexually abusing a child.
Henry Obdulio Cordon, 38, Antioch, California, faces a minimum mandatory sentence of 15 years and up to 30 years in federal prison and a potential lifetime of supervised release. Cordon was arrested in California on May 16, 2019, and has been in custody since that time. His sentencing hearing is scheduled for Oct. 23.
According to court documents, the investigation began in April 2019, when an internet service provider sent a series of CyberTipline reports to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. These reports related to the discovery of child sexual abuse photos detected within an email account that geolocated to California. Law enforcement officers traced the email account, which contained at least five photos depicting children being sexually abused, to Cordon.
On May 9, 2019, the internet service provider submitted additional CyberTipline reports to NCMEC related to other accounts that were linked to and used by Cordon. One of the photos in the email account depicted a young child being sexually abused by an adult male. Metadata associated with the photo indicated that it had been produced on July 11, 2011, using a Blackberry device. Additional search warrants revealed that the email account was used during April and May 2019 at Cordon’s apartment.
On May 16, 2019, during the execution of a search warrant at Cordon’s residence, Cordon admitted that he had searched the internet for “nude teen pictures.” When asked if he ever had a Blackberry device, Cordon said he had one about nine years before, when he lived in Florida. Investigators asked him about a particular photo depicting the sexual abuse of a young child that that was recovered from his email account. When asked who the child was and how he met her, Cordon eventually admitted that he knew what they were talking about, he knew the child depicted in this photo, and that she was “maybe” under four years of age. Cordon claimed that his sexual abuse of this child only happened one time, and that he remembered emailing this photo to himself to save. He also admitted taking the picture with his Blackberry.
Further investigation confirmed that Cordon had taken the photo and sent it to his email account. The photo was also recovered from the device he possessed in California on May 16, 2019. Law enforcement authorities in Florida confirmed the child’s identity and age, as well as the location in Florida where Cordon had taken the photo.
This case was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations Jacksonville, the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force of Contra Costa County, the Contra Costa Sheriff’s Office, the Contra Costa District Attorney’s Office, and the Clay County Sheriff’s Office. U.S. Attorney Roger B. Handberg announced the guilty plea. Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Florida D. Rodney Brown is prosecuting the case.
About HSI
HSI is the principal investigative arm of the Department of Homeland Security, responsible for investigating transnational crime and threats, specifically those criminal organizations that exploit the global infrastructure through which international trade, travel, and finance move. HSI’s workforce consists of over 10,000 employees, assigned to 235 offices within the United States, and 93 overseas locations in 56 countries. HSI's international presence represents the Department of Homeland Security’s largest investigative law enforcement presence abroad and one of the largest international footprints in U.S. law enforcement.