A 36-year-old Green Bay man is facing a federal charge carrying up to 20 years in prison after U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers say they found apparent child sexual abuse material on his phone during a routine secondary inspection at O'Hare International Airport. Eca Baruani had just arrived in Chicago from the United Republic of Tanzania when the search occurred, according to federal prosecutors.
Federal prosecutors have charged Baruani with one count of possession of child pornography, according to Tampa Free Press. CBP officers turned Baruani's phone — a Samsung Galaxy Z Fold7, according to court records filed by the Department of Justice — over to Homeland Security Investigations special agents, who reported finding several videos depicting prepubescent children engaged in sexually explicit acts with adults. A criminal complaint and supporting affidavit were sworn before U.S. Magistrate Judge Young B. Kim in the Eastern Division of the Northern District of Illinois.
Suspect Allegedly Admitted to WhatsApp Group Chat
In the sworn affidavit, an HSI special agent reported that Baruani admitted under questioning to viewing the files after receiving them through a WhatsApp group chat containing approximately five members, per the same account. The complaint affidavit also noted that Baruani claimed sole ownership and passcode access to the phone. Assistant U.S. Attorney Lauren Pope is prosecuting the case for the government, the report notes.
U.S. Attorney Andrew S. Boutros and Matthew Scarpino, special agent-in-charge of HSI's Chicago field office, announced the arrest and federal charge. Boutros, who leads the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Illinois, was confirmed to that post in July 2025 as the first person of color to hold the role in the office's 170-year history, as Hoodline previously reported. He previously served as a federal prosecutor and a faculty member at the University of Chicago Law School.
How Border Agents Can Search Phones Without a Warrant
Baruani's case turns on a legal doctrine that gives border officers unusually broad authority over travelers' devices. International airport customs areas like O'Hare are treated as the “functional equivalent of the border,” meaning officers can examine electronics without a warrant under the Fourth Amendment's border search exception, according to the Electronic Frontier Foundation. CBP guidelines do require officers to have reasonable suspicion of unlawful activity or a national security concern before conducting the more invasive forensic searches that extract and copy a device's data, as detailed by CBC News.
Those searches remain rare in absolute terms but are climbing. CBP officers searched a record 55,318 electronic devices at U.S. ports of entry in 2025, a 17.6% increase over 2024, even though the practice still affects less than 0.01% of arriving international travelers. It is not the first time O'Hare screeners have surfaced this kind of case: in June, federal prosecutors in Chicago charged an Illinois high school teacher with transporting child pornography after border screeners flagged explicit files on his phone during an international flight, a case Hoodline covered at the time.
Charge Filed Under Nationwide Child Exploitation Initiative
The charge against Baruani is being brought under Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide Department of Justice initiative established in 2006 to coordinate federal, state, and local law enforcement resources against child sexual exploitation. It is one of several such prosecutions recently pursued out of the Northern District of Illinois, including a Chicago man charged last year with trading child pornography on Telegram.
Baruani was scheduled to make an initial appearance in federal court in Chicago. Under Title 18, U.S. Code Section 2252A(a)(5)(B), a conviction for possession of child pornography carries a statutory maximum of 20 years in federal prison along with mandatory supervised release and sex offender registration. The criminal complaint is an allegation rather than proof of wrongdoing, and Baruani is presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
Several questions remain open, including Baruani's custody status following his initial court appearance, whether additional charges could stem from the alleged WhatsApp group chat, and how his defense might challenge the admissibility of statements made during the secondary border questioning. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children operates a free service 24 hours a day, seven days a week for anyone who may be a victim of sexual exploitation, reachable at www.missingkids.com or 1-800-843-5678.
