PHOENIX, ARIZONA (BNO NEWS) – A Florida man on Tuesday was sentenced for traveling to Arizona with intent of having sex with a minor in Mexico, said prosecutors on Wednesday.

Charles A. Soderman, 31, was sentenced to 78 months in federal prison. He was found guilty by a federal jury in September 2009 of Travel with the Intent to Engage in Illicit Sexual Contact with a Minor. The U.S. District Judge also ordered that Soderman be on life time supervised release and register as a sex offender.

On March 9, 2009, Soderman flew from Miami, Florida, to Yuma, Arizona and then traveled to the Mexican border in an attempt to have sex with a boy, as young as the age of six years of age. This arrest was part of an undercover operation conducted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to halt sex tourism into Mexico as part of ICE’s national program, Operation Predator.

“It is a priority of the U.S. Attorney’s Office to prosecute those who prey upon the most vulnerable citizens in our communities, our children,” stated Dennis K. Burke, U.S. Attorney for the District of Arizona. “I appreciate the efforts of ICE and other law enforcement agencies who work tirelessly to investigate these types of crimes against children.”

“My agents are aggressively pursuing child predators across the state of Arizona,” said Matt Allen, special agent in charge of ICE investigations in Arizona. “We want to make sure that men like Charles Soderman are taken off of our streets and kept away from our children.”

The investigation leading to the guilty verdict was conducted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.