UNITED STATES/MEXICO
KLEW
BY ELIZABETH FAUGL FRIDAY, JANUARY 29TH 2016
(WSYX/WTTE) — A seminary student from Ohio is facing federal charges for reportedly traveling to San Diego trying to arrange to have sex with infants in Mexico, officials said.
Joel Wright, 23, from Columbus, was arrested at San Diego International Airport by agents from Immigration and Custom Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).
Investigators said they got a tip in November about an ad Wright placed on Craiglist in search of adopting an infant in Tijuana, Mexico. According to the criminal complaint, the tipster said he’d responded to the ad and learned the person was studying to be a priest in Ohio. Federal investigators said Wright placed the ad.
Authorities said the tipster later revealed he’d first started communicating with Wright in 2014 about adopting a child. The tipster added Wright traveled to Tijuana in July of 2014 to meet with him, hoping to adopt the child. The person — who investigators kept anonymous — said Wright paid him money as an adoption fee. The tipster took the money and told Wright he would come with the child — but never did.
Investigators said after the tipster began responding to the newest Craigslist ad, the conversation eventually revealed Wright’s “desire to engage in illicit sexual conduct with female infants.” In one email, Wright reportedly said, “I have not gone all the way before but I have made it very close in the past so I do have experance.” (sic)
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