Ryan Nigro

According to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of South Dakota, Ryan Nigro, 34, of Sioux Falls, was sentenced on September 14, 2026, to 10 years in federal prison for attempted enticement of a minor using the Internet. Chief U.S. District Court Judge Roberto A. Lange imposed the sentence, which also includes five years of supervised release and a $100 special assessment to the Federal Crime Victims Fund. After release, Nigro must register as a sex offender for 25 years. He was immediately remanded to the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service. The Reddit connection is documented in the release. It says the conviction stemmed from an undercover chat operation in which several law enforcement agencies worked together to identify people using the Internet to attempt to have sex with children. Nigro used Reddit to start a conversation with a person he believed was a minor. According to the office, he introduced the topic of sex into the conversation and asked the person to meet him at a local hotel for sex. The persona was operated by a special agent with Homeland Security Investigations, and Nigro was arrested by law enforcement when he arrived at the hotel. A federal grand jury indicted Nigro in April 2024, and a jury found him guilty at trial on June 4, 2026, so this was a trial conviction rather than a guilty plea. The investigation involved Homeland Security Investigations, the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, the South Dakota Division of Criminal Investigation and several South Dakota police and sheriff's agencies. Assistant U.S. Attorney Elizabeth E. Ebert-Webb prosecuted the case under Project Safe Childhood. Dakota News Now reported the sentence and the Reddit contact, attributing the account to the U.S. Attorney's Office. The records reviewed do not identify a subreddit or any Reddit report that preceded the operation.