The U.S. Attorney's Office said Marcos Francisco Javier Gomez, of Norwalk, is facing child exploitation charges after he recorded sexual activity with minors in Connecticut. He is serving time in connection with an incident out of Putnam County. 

HARTFORD — A Norwalk man is facing multiple federal child exploitation offenses, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. 

Marcos Francisco Javier Gomez, 23, was found to have been communicating with at least five minor girls in Connecticut, said U.S. Attorney for the District of Connecticut David X. Sullivan.

He had also “recorded himself engaging in sexual activity with four of these minor victims, had requested that the minor victims send him videos depicting them engaging in sexually explicit conduct, and had sent obscene images of himself to at least one of the minor victims,” according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Gomez typically met his minor victims through Snapchat, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said. 

A federal criminal complaint charges Gomez with production of child pornography, which, if he’s convicted, carries at least a 15-year sentence that could go up to life in prison. He was also charged with receipt or attempted receipt of child pornography, possession or attempted possession of child pornography and transfer of obscene materials to a minor, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. 

Authorities found Gomez had been talking to the minors after he was arrested in New York in April 2024. Gomez was arrested by the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office on April 3, 2024, after he traveled to the state to meet with a 13-year-old girl. The U.S. Attorney’s Office said Gomez engaged in sexual explicit communications with the minor via text messages, FaceTime and other social media applications. 

Searches of Gomez’s cellphone revealed he had been communicating with minors in Connecticut, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office. 

Gomez pleaded guilty in New York in August 2024 to second-degree attempted rape and first-degree disseminating indecent material to a minor. He was sentenced in November 2024 to serve three years in state prison followed by five years of supervised release, according to the Putnam County District Attorney’s Office. 

Gomez, who has been serving his state sentence, appeared in federal court in Hartford on Thursday, where U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert A. Richardson ordered for him to be detained.