A decade-old Utah warrant remained outstanding after Lam Xuan Nguyen failed to appear for sentencing in 2016. Nguyen, 36, was arrested Thursday during an FBI child-exploitation operation in Utah after investigators say he tried to arrange a meeting with a boy under the age of 13.
KSL.com reported that Nguyen was taken into custody without incident at a Utah meeting location. Investigators say he believed he was arranging to meet a boy he could sexually abuse. Officers confirmed his identity through fingerprints, according to the report.
Nguyen was convicted in 2016 in 4th District Court of three counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, each a second-degree felony. Under Utah Code § 76-3-203, a conviction at that level carries a prison sentence of 1 to 15 years and a fine of up to $10,000, according to the Utah State Courts. Nguyen did not appear for his pre-sentencing report that year, and the court issued an arrest warrant, KSL.com reported.
A Possible False Identification
An affidavit described Nguyen as having obtained what investigators believed was a fake New York state identification, KSL.com reported.
Investigators confirmed Nguyen's identity using his fingerprints.
How the Sting Came Together
The FBI's Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force began investigating in June an individual communicating online about sexually abusing a male child under the age of 13, KSL.com reported. The investigation led to Nguyen, who had returned to Utah and allegedly attempted to sexually abuse a child under 13. The task force brings together federal, state and local agencies for child-protection work, according to the FBI's Salt Lake City Field Office.
Utah Code § 76-4-401 defines enticing a minor to include using internet or text communications to lure a minor, or someone believed to be a minor, into illegal sexual activity; the statute says undercover law enforcement involvement cannot be used as a defense. Nguyen was booked into Salt Lake County Jail for investigation of attempted sodomy on a child, enticing a minor and forgery, KSL.com reported.
This arrest is part of a much larger pattern. The FBI announced results from Operation Restore Justice, a five-day nationwide surge across all 55 field offices, including Salt Lake City, that led to 205 child sex abuse arrests and the rescue of 115 children. Nationwide, Internet Crimes Against Children task forces conducted nearly 347,000 investigations and arrested more than 17,000 offenders in 2025, according to figures reported by Hoodline.
Utah public health data shows rape is the only violent crime in the state with rates higher than the national average, according to Nix Law.
What Utah's task-force data show
A 2022 review by the Utah Legislative Fiscal Analyst says the Attorney General's Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force investigates internet crimes against children statewide and also provides education and victim services. The review does not give a typical annual investigation total. Separately, St. George News, citing U.S. Department of Justice data, reported that Utah police arrested 133 people accused of downloading child pornography in 2013 and 226 in 2018. Those are arrest figures, not counts of task-force investigations.
