Ravena man pleads guilty to distributing child porn

RAVENA — A Ravena man has pleaded guilty to distributing child pornography via an encrypted messaging application on his phone, according to a statement from the Department of Justice.

Derek Boprey, 31, of Ravena, also pled guilty to possessing child pornography on two electronic devices.

The guilty plea was announced Friday by United States Attorney Grant Jaquith and James Hendricks, special agent in charge of the FBI Albany Field Office.

“As part of his guilty plea, Boprey admitted that on March 23, 2018, he used the Wickr Me messaging application to distribute child pornography over the Internet to another man, also residing in the Capital Region,” according to the statement from the Department of Justice.

Officials did not release information about the other person who was allegedly involved.

Boprey used the name “durb30” on Wickr Me, using it to send “dozens of images of child pornography, including images depicting the sexual abuse of children as young as 2 years old,” according to the statement.

Boprey, who is now in custody, faces at least five years and as many as 20 years in prison. After he is released, he will be required to be on supervised release for at least five years and up to life.

Upon release from incarceration, he will also be required to register as a sex offender.

Boprey will be sentenced March 6, 2019, by United States District Judge Mae A. D’Agostino, according to the statement.

“A defendant’s sentence is imposed by a judge based on the particular statute the defendant is charged with violating, the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other factors,” according to the statement.

The case was investigated by the FBI and that agency’s Child Exploitation Task Force, which includes federal, state and local law enforcement. The Colonie Police Department was among the investigating agencies.

Assistant United States Attorney Michael Barnett is prosecuting the case, with assistance from the Albany County District Attorney’s Office.

The case was prosecuted as part of Project Safe Childhood, created in 2006 by the Department of Justice to pool the resources of federal, state and local resources to fight child exploitation over the Internet, and to identify and rescue victims.