A Ranchester man on leave from military duty in Iraq is in custody for allegedly possessing more than 800 images of child pornography on his computer equipment, according to a criminal complaint filed in federal court last week.

Ricardo Gaona has been charged with one count of possessing child pornography and one count of receiving child pornography through the Internet, according to the complaint filed in U.S. District Court on Jan. 9.

If convicted, Gaona faces between five and 30 years imprisonment, possible lifetime supervised release, and a $500,000 fine.

The federal government has been increasing its efforts to target child pornography, which is regarded as a crime of violence because the victims are often brutalized and they are not capable of consenting to sexual activity.

This marks the first time Acting U.S. Attorney Jim Anderson has seen a case with child pornography being transferred between Wyoming and the Middle East, said U.S. Attorney spokesman John Powell.

Gaona, who serves in the U.S. Army, is scheduled to appear at 3:30 p.m. Thursday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael Shickich at the Ewing T. Kerr federal courthouse in Casper for a preliminary hearing and detention hearing.

The U.S. Attorney's Office wants the court to keep Gaona in custody.

Gaona's federal public defender Daniel Blythe declined to comment on the case.

The case began with an undercover investigation of computers sharing child pornography on the Internet through the Wyoming Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force, which works with the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the FBI.

On Jan. 5, agents tracked the images to a computer in Ranchester, according to the criminal complaint.

The DCI determined Gaona entered the U.S. on Dec. 20 on a military chartered flight from Kuwait.

On Jan. 7, the ICAC task force obtained and executed a search warrant at a Ranchester address where they asked to speak to Gaona, according to the complaint. "Gaona agreed and led (DCI Special Agent Flint) Waters into a bedroom, apparently belonging to his daughter."

Gaona was advised and said he understood his Miranda rights, and answered questions from Waters, according to the complaint.

Gaona acknowledged using a Dell laptop to intentionally receive child pornography but didn't know it was illegal, and then said he only received the child pornography to see why it was illegal, according to the complaint.

He added he accidentally came across child pornography while in Iraq, and then sought it out.

Gaona also contradicted himself by saying he'd downloaded all of it after arriving in Wyoming, then admitted having it on the computer in Iraq, but thought he had deleted before going through customs to enter the U.S., according to the complaint.

During the search another DCI agent found a laptop running in a bedroom, got the password from Gaona, and saw more than 800 files in a folder matching a file list of known child pornography, according to the complaint.

As the agent was working, he saw 12 computers from the Internet were downloading child pornography and terminated the program.

On Jan. 9, Waters examined the hard drive contained a movie that started downloading to the computer at 11:52 p.m. Jan.1 and completed the download at 4:23 a.m. Jan. 2.

"A check of the computer time revealed it was displaying the time ten hours ahead of Wyoming, apparently from the time zone where the computer was most frequently used," according to the complaint. "Waters also found that the shared folder contained over 100 images and movies of child sexual abuse images."

Reach Tom Morton at (307) 266-0592, or at Tom.Morton@trib.com.