United States Attorney Jan Sharp announced the Jurrell Parker, 34, of Omaha, Nebraska, was sentenced on February 24, 2022, for Aiding and Abetting the Transportation of Visual Depictions of Minors Engaging in Sexually Explicit Conduct. Senior United States District Judge Joseph F. Bataillon sentenced Parker to 60 months’ imprisonment. There is no parole in the federal system. After his release from prison, Parker will begin a 10-year term of supervised release and will also be required to register as a sex offender.

On April 19, 2019, Parker used Kik, an online application with servers located outside the State of Nebraska, to communicate with an undercover law enforcement officer that had assumed the identity of another user of the application.  Law enforcement had previously located several Kik chat conversations in which it appeared child pornography material was being traded by the members of the chat. During the online conversation, Parker sent the undercover officer a “Mega” hyperlink, which directed the officer to a folder of 113 video files of child pornography.  Mega is a cloud storage and file hosting service offered by Mega Limited, an Auckland, New Zealand-based company.

Agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force obtained subscriber information and IP login history associated with Kik user that had shared the Mega hyperlink, which ultimately led to Parker’s residence in Omaha, Nebraska.  On April 22, 2019, the FBI executed a federal search warrant of Parker’s Omaha residence and seized Parker’s phone.  A search of that phone located 9 images and 5 videos of minors, between the age of 8 and 15 years old, engaged in sexually explicit conduct.  

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by United States Attorney’s Offices and the Criminal Division's 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.projectsafechildhood.gov.

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force.