Houston man sentenced in child pornography case
Published 2:00 pm Thursday, October 22, 2026
HOUSTON — A 27-year-old man has been sentenced to more than 11 years in federal prison for distributing and possessing child sexual abuse material.
Daniel Berrones pleaded guilty Aug. 27 and was sentenced by U.S. District Judge George C. Hanks to 136 months in prison, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Berrones also was ordered to pay $25,000 in restitution to known victims and will serve five years of supervised release after completing his prison sentence. He also will be required to register as a sex offender.
During the sentencing hearing, the court heard testimony that Berrones used online chat rooms to share child sexual abuse material, according to the release.
The investigation began Feb. 7, 2020, when authorities discovered child sexual abuse material being shared through the Mega application. Investigators traced the activity to a blog that provided access to the material and identified an email account belonging to Berrones that was distributing the content in a chat group.
Authorities later executed a search warrant at Berrones’ residence and found about 22 videos and 167 images of child sexual abuse material on his electronic devices.
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Berrones admitted accessing links containing the material through Discord, an instant messaging and content-sharing platform. He also admitted saving and distributing images and videos, some of which depicted toddlers, according to the release.
Berrones remained in custody pending transfer to a Federal Bureau of Prisons facility.
The FBI investigated the case, which was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Ben Hostetter.
The case was brought under Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched by the U.S. Department of Justice in 2006 to combat child sexual exploitation and abuse.