Gabriel Perez

Gabriel Perez, a 31-year-old man from Eastampton, New Jersey who was an Air Force captain at the time of the offense, was convicted by a federal jury on July 17, 2026 of attempted enticement and coercion of a minor and attempted transfer of obscene materials to a minor. According to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of New Jersey, the verdict followed a five-day trial that began on July 13, 2026 in Camden federal court. The case arose from an undercover operation. In its April 2026 announcement of the superseding indictment, the Office said that beginning in mid-August 2024 Perez, then 29 and an officer in the U.S. Air Force, communicated over Reddit with an undercover law enforcement officer who purported to be a 14-year-old girl. Over about two weeks he expressed interest in meeting the purported minor for sex. The Office said that on August 28, 2024 Perez sent an obscene photograph of himself to the purported minor and arranged to meet her the next day, and that on August 29, 2024 he drove to the arranged meeting location and was arrested. The supposed minor was an undercover officer. The superseding indictment, returned on April 2, 2026, charged him under 18 U.S.C. 2422(b) and 18 U.S.C. 1470. The July conviction release refers only to an online social media platform; the Reddit detail comes from the earlier indictment release. Perez faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in prison and a maximum of life imprisonment on the enticement count, and up to 10 years on the second count. Sentencing is scheduled for December 9, 2026, so no sentence has been imposed. The Air Force Office of Special Investigations led the investigation, with assistance from the Burlington County Prosecutor's Office and the Eastampton Police Department. FOX 29 Philadelphia reported the verdict and sentencing date.