A Houston man who posed online as a 12-year-old boy to target children in California's Central Valley has been sentenced to 30 years in federal prison. Thomas Henry Lopez used TikTok and the encrypted messaging app JusTalk to contact minors in Kingsburg, coercing at least two young girls into creating and sending illicit videos and images before investigators traced the activity back to his home and workplace.
According to FBI Sacramento
, Lopez pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual exploitation and one count of distribution of child sexual abuse material on July 13, 2026. A separate account from
kmph.com
describes Lopez as having been convicted of those same two exploitation counts plus one count of distributing child sexual abuse material and one count of transferring obscene material to a minor — the two sources differ slightly on the final count total, and that discrepancy has not been resolved. The station also reports Lopez entered his guilty plea in July 2026 without a plea agreement in place.
How the Scheme Unfolded
Between June and July 2024, Lopez contacted children in the Central Valley through TikTok, according to the same kmph.com report, then moved conversations to text messages and JusTalk. He allegedly posed as a 12-year-old boy from Texas, using that false identity to persuade victims to create and send explicit material. FBI Sacramento Special Agent in Charge Brian Tosh said Lopez “befriended and ultimately exploited vulnerable children who had no idea he was not the 12-year-old he claimed to be.”
The Kingsburg Police Department opened its investigation on July 1, 2024, after receiving a report that an unknown male was communicating online with two minor girls, ages 9 and 11, the station's report notes. Investigators identified Lopez by tracing internet connections back to his home and workplace, per the same account. On September 3, 2024, Lopez was arrested as he was leaving for a work trip to Singapore.
Devices Seized, Charges Filed
FBI agents and Kingsburg detectives served a search warrant at Lopez's Houston residence and recovered several electronic devices, according to a separate kmph.com report on the arrest. The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Central California Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, with Kingsburg police playing the lead role, conducted the investigation.
Tosh described the case as an example of the FBI's collaborative work to identify and investigate predators who exploit the anonymity of online communication. “We are grateful to the Kingsburg Police Department for their professionalism and commend the brave survivors and their families for trusting us to conduct a thorough investigation to hold Lopez accountable for his depraved crime,” Tosh said, adding, “Justice will find you, always.”
Sentence Includes Lifetime Restrictions
Beyond the 30-year prison term, Lopez was ordered to serve a lifetime of supervised release with sex-offender registration and restrictions on computers, cellphones and internet access, according to FBI Sacramento. He was also ordered to pay $24,400 in financial assessments.
The case lands amid a documented surge in reports of online crimes against children nationally. Online-enticement reports to the CyberTipline run by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children jumped from 292,951 in the first half of 2024 to 518,720 in the first half of 2025. The organization also reported that reports involving generative artificial intelligence tied to child exploitation soared from 6,835 to 440,419 over the same period, and said offenders are increasingly using such tools to fabricate explicit images using a child's face for blackmail.
Other recent federal cases underscore how seriously courts are treating these crimes. A Las Vegas man was sentenced to 420 months in prison, followed by 35 years of supervised release, for sexual exploitation of children, coercion and enticement, and possession of child sexual abuse material, according to the U.S. Department of Justice, District of Nevada.
