MIAMI, Florida — A 42-year-old Illinois man has been sentenced to 180 months in federal prison for transporting images and videos depicting the sexual exploitation of minors. William Ahart was sentenced by U.S. District Judge William P. Dimitrouleas in Fort Lauderdale.
Ahart, a registered sex offender, was apprehended at the Port Everglades cruise ship terminal in Fort Lauderdale on June 15 after arriving from the U.S. Virgin Islands. United States Customs and Border Protection officers examined Ahart’s smartphone and discovered numerous images of child sexual abuse material (CSAM), according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida.
Special Agents from Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Fort Lauderdale further reviewed Ahart’s smartphone and found that the CSAM images were sent to him by three minor females with whom he had been communicating for several months. Ahart admitted to receiving and viewing the images and was arrested by HSI agents.