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District Court Judge Curtis V. Gomez Thursday sentenced Raheem T. Creque, 37, of St. Thomas, to 25 years in prison and a lifetime of supervised release for production of child pornography, United States Attorney Ronald W. Sharpe announced.

Gomez also sentenced Creque to an additional five years in prison and three years of supervised release for escape from custody. Both sentences will run concurrently.

Raheem “Shano” Creque

Creque was first arrested on Jan. 21, 2014 by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and charged with enticing and coercing a minor to engage in sexual activity through use of a facility of interstate commerce. After his detention hearing on Jan. 22, 2014, U.S. Magistrate Judge Ruth Miller ordered Creque held without bail, and remanded him to the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service. On Jan. 23, 2014, Creque escaped from the V.I. Bureau of Corrections at the Alexander A. Farrelly Criminal Justice Complex on St. Thomas. On Jan. 24, 2014, Judge Gomez issued a warrant for his arrest, and after a multi-agency manhunt, Creque was arrested on Feb. 28, 2014. On July 9, 2014, he pleaded guilty to three counts of child pornography and one count of escape from custody.

According to court records, Creque became known to law enforcement officials when a female minor contacted the V.I. Police Department (VIPD) and complained that Creque had extorted her for sex, threatening to place nude pictures of her on the Internet.

Creque first contacted the minor in March 2010 when she was 15, informing her that he had a sexually explicit video of her and that he would post it on Facebook if she did not agree to have sex with him. The female minor begged Creque not to release the video, but he continued to threaten her until she complied to his demands.

During his sexual assault of the teenage victim, Creque took a photo of her, which he used to further extort the minor by threatening to post it on Facebook.

Court records also showed that searches of Creque’s cell phone and Facebook account revealed multiple nude images of other young girls, the youngest at age 12, with some of the minors engaged in sexual acts with Creque.

Creque, also known as Shano, pretended to be a teenage boy named “Carlos,” and sent images of “Carlos” to the minor victims when he made his initial contact with them.

When Creque was first arrested, Angel M. Melendez, the San Juan-based HSI special agent who oversees the agency’s investigations in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, said, “What is most important about this case is that the victim of child sex abuse was rescued. Whenever our investigations reveal the production and distribution of new child pornography, we will do everything we can to rescue the victim and prosecute the abuser. This case is another example of the extraordinary collaborative efforts among law enforcement in the USVI to protect those who can’t protect themselves.”

The case was investigated by HSI and VIPD, and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Everard E. Potter.

HSI encourages the public to report suspected child predators and any unusual activity through its toll-free Tip Line at 1-866-DHS-2-ICE or by completing its online tip form. Both are staffed 24 hours by investigators.

Suspected child sexual exploitation or missing children may be reported to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, an Operation Predator partner, through its toll-free 24-hour hotline at 1-800-THE-LOST.