A 33-year-old former U.S. serviceman has been sentenced to 15.5 years in federal prison for sexually exploiting a minor girl in Maryland, in a case that also revealed he used Snapchat to reach out to other minors in Texas and additional states. Daniel Lara-Salazar, who was stationed in Puyallup, Washington, was sentenced this week by a federal judge in the District of Maryland for crimes committed while he was serving in the military.
U.S. Attorney Kelly O. Hayes announced the sentence alongside officials from Homeland Security Investigations Maryland, the Frederick County Sheriff's Office, and the Frederick County State's Attorney's Office, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. The case, first reported by CBS Baltimore, describes how Lara-Salazar used Snapchat starting in June 2024 to message a minor female victim living in Maryland, persuading her to send sexually explicit videos and images. Federal prosecutors say the coercion continued through July 2024, according to Daily Voice, a two-month span during which he repeatedly induced the minor to produce explicit material.
A Multi-State Trail of Victims
Investigators found that Lara-Salazar did not stop with one victim. According to CBS Baltimore, he used Snapchat to talk to other minors in different states, and he is included among contacts with minors in Texas. The Justice Department's announcement confirms that digital forensic analysis showed he communicated with three additional minor females residing in Texas and other jurisdictions using similar coercion techniques, persuading them to send explicit content as well.
Part of what complicated the investigation was the nature of the platform itself. Snapchat automatically deletes sent content after 24 hours unless it is saved, and law enforcement found that some of the images sent to Lara-Salazar were no longer present in the Snapchat system by the time they searched for them. Consumer safety and legal organizations, including Helping Survivors, have pointed to growing civil lawsuits and regulatory scrutiny alleging that the app's auto-deleting message feature facilitates online grooming by erasing evidence of predatory interactions. That evidentiary gap is a recurring theme in recent prosecutions, where investigators increasingly rely on multi-victim pattern analysis to piece together what disappearing messages leave behind.
Guilty Plea Preceded Sentencing by Months
Lara-Salazar formally pleaded guilty to federal child sexual exploitation charges in February, months ahead of this week's sentencing, per the Justice Department's announcement. U.S. District Judge Matthew J. Maddox handed down the 15.5-year sentence, which will be followed by lifetime supervised release and mandatory federal sex offender registration once Lara-Salazar completes his prison term, according to 930 WFMD.
That sentence lands just six months above the federal statutory floor. Charges brought under 18 U.S.C. § 2251 carry a mandatory minimum of 15 years in federal prison and a maximum of 30 years for first-time offenders, with no possibility of parole, according to Eisner Gorin LLP. Judge Maddox has handled other high-profile Maryland child exploitation cases, including the June sentencing of a member of an online extremist network to 30 years in prison, per the Justice Department.
How the Case Fits a Broader Federal Push
The investigation was carried out under Project Safe Childhood, a Department of Justice initiative launched in 2006 that relies on joint operations between federal U.S. Attorney's Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section to coordinate victim rescue and offender prosecution. The program uses federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute people who sexually exploit children, and its stated goal is combating child sexual exploitation and abuse nationwide.
Maryland has seen a steady stream of Project Safe Childhood prosecutions in recent months. Hoodline has previously reported on an Oklahoma-assisted Maryland indictment, a Colorado man's Baltimore conviction, and a former Hogan deputy's guilty plea. The scale of federal enforcement extends well beyond individual cases: in May 2025, the Justice Department and FBI Baltimore conducted Operation Restore Justice, a nationwide child exploitation enforcement push that led to 205 arrests and the rescue of 115 children, with multiple operations carried out in Maryland, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The joint investigation into Lara-Salazar, built from a Frederick County tip that reached federal agents through Homeland Security Investigations Maryland, illustrates how local law enforcement work feeds into national initiatives aimed at predators who operate remotely, including those stationed on military bases far from their victims.
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