Darren Kalmar, 58, of Fayetteville, North Carolina, United States, pleaded guilty to two counts of receipt of child pornography on May 13, 2022.
He was sentenced to 188 months in prison on the two counts, according to a statement from the US Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of North Carolina.
According to court documents and other information presented in court, in 2019, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) received two CyberTip reports from a social networking platform, Tagged, relative to suspected child exploitation activity.
The CyberTips concerned activity in May 2019 between two users who discussed arranging for sex with minors abroad.
One user on the platform, later identified as Kalmar, mentioned having sex with a 13-year-old Dominican girl, and asked the other person to arrange contact with a girl who was nine or 10 years old.
"The other responded with a photo that appeared to depict a prepubescent female, and Kalmar responded, 'perfect, I want her'," the US Attorney's Office stated.
"They negotiated prices, settling on US$90 for nude photos and US$250 for access to the child for five days," the office added.
Kalmar reportedly provided a CashApp payment username that contained “kalmar”, and an email address with username, dskalmar32.
At the end of the conversation, Kalmar stated that he sent the money and that he needed the photos now.
"You get the money and run?" Kalmar was quoted as asking the individual said to be the "second user".
The US Attorney's Office said "the IP address for the second user was traced to a woman in Jamaica," while Kalmar’s IP was tracked to a residence in Fayetteville.
Law enforcement officials compared Kalmar’s driver’s licence photograph to a user profile photo on his Tagged account, and found that they matched.
On October 18, 2019, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) executed a search warrant on Kalmar’s home, during which his cell phone was confiscated.
On the device, the agents "found audio files in which Kalmar appeared to be discussing upcoming travel to the Philippines for sex with a 15-year-old minor female and her friends," the statement informed.
The FBI confirmed that Kalmar had purchased tickets to travel to the Philippines on those dates.
During interviews with investigators, Kalmar "admitted to owning the Tagged account and chatting with someone in Jamaica," the released said.
It added that, "He also confirmed that the CashApp account was his, but claimed the conversation arranging a sexual encounter with a minor was merely fantasy."
The FBI conducted forensics on Kalmar’s computer and several mobile devices, and found 21 images depicting child sexual abuse material (CSAM) on a cell phone.
On the computer, the investigators found an additional 401 images and 11 videos of CSAM.
The files included minors under the age of 12.
Kalmar was subsequently charged with two counts of receipt of child pornography relative to his interactions with the Jamaican on the social messaging platform.
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