Rochester, N.Y. - The FBI is alerting parents and children about any online encounters they may have had with a 24 year-old Buffalo man who is now in federal custody.
Jafet Rivera of Buffalo was arrested in March by FBI agents, who claim Rivera traveled to Rochester to have sex with a 14-year-old girl he’d been communicating with through Facebook. The alert father of this girl detected the sexually charged communications and alerted the FBI.
Agents in the bureau’s Cyber Taskforce assumed her online identity and arranged the meeting.
"Again it comes down to parents knowing what their sons and daughters are doing on Facebook and other public media," Supervisory Senior Resident Agent David Zariczny of the FBI’s Rochester Field Office said. "We know that there are additional victims out there and that's why we're coming to the public with this."
The criminal complaint filed against Rivera describes sexually charged interactions with the agent posing as the alleged victim. Details of the conversation included in the complaint reveal how Rivera planned to meet the young girl at the train or bus station in Rochester and how he had two "spots" where he intended to have sex with her.
"…Either in da boys bathroom in da greyhound or in a lil house outside…" Rivera allegedly wrote in one communication with the agent posing as the victim.
On March 20, FBI agents arrested Rivera after locating him on a bench outside the train station in Rochester where he planned to meet the alleged victim. He was wearing clothes that he described to the victim in advance and he had with him the cell phone that he used for those online communications.
The criminal complaint states that Rivera acknowledged that there had been "other occasions or opportunities for him to meet up with girls to have sex with them." He later stated that nothing happened because he "chickened out."
"In our subsequent investigation we found several instances where he reached out to minor girls seeking sexual activity so we know that there's additional victims out there and that's why we're coming to the public with this," Agent Zariczny added.
Rivera currently faces one federal charge for using the Internet to entice a child to engage in sexual activity. If convicted he could spend ten to thirty years in federal prison.
Anyone with information that could help the FBI with this ongoing investigation is asked to contact the Rochester Field Office at 585-546-2220. You can also call 911 or your local police agency as well as CrimeStoppers at 585-423-9300.
