Andrew Juarez, a 28-year-old Baltimore resident, was arrested on September 5, 2025, in Washington, D.C., after allegedly traveling with the intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct with a nine-year-old girl. According to U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro, Juarez was apprehended at a bar where he believed he would meet the girl’s mother.
Law enforcement officials from the FBI Washington Field Office and the Metropolitan Police Department’s Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force conducted the arrest. Authorities reported that Juarez had two cell phones at the time of his arrest. During an interview with task force agents, Juarez stated there was child pornography on one of his devices.
“This case is being brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse, launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ 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.justice.gov/psc,” according to the announcement.
The investigation was led by members of both federal agencies and regional detectives assigned to the task force specializing in child exploitation cases. The matter is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Caroline Burrell.
