An Arlington man has pleaded guilty to federal sex crime charges, admitting to downloading child pornography through a website on the “dark web.”
Ammar Atef Alahdali, a 22-year-old Saudi Arabian national living in Arlington, pleaded guilty to one count of receipt of child pornography in federal court yesterday (Tuesday), according to a release from the Department of Justice.
Federal prosecutors say Alahdali used cryptocurrency to register on a dark web site, which could only be accessed via special software masking his IP address, back in April 2017.
They believe he then downloaded “more than 20 videos depicting the sexual abuse of children, including at least one video depicting sadistic sexual conduct” from the website over the subsequent months.
According to documents filed in federal court, federal agents searched Alahdali’s home in July, where they discovered evidence of child pornography on his laptop. He also admitted to downloading the pornography in an interview with federal agents.
Alahdali is currently being held in the Alexandria Detention Center and is set to be sentenced on Jan. 18.
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