An Internet "sting" and a cooperative federal, state and local investigation have resulted in a 12-year, 7-month prison sentence for a Jerome man who collected and distributed child pornography.

Andrew Charles Tennant, 30, was sentenced this morning by Chief U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill at the federal courthouse in Boise. Once he has served his prison sentence, Tennant will be on supervised release for 30 years, during which time he will be prohibited from having contact with minors or using a computer linked to the Internet. He will also be required to get treatment for sexual deviancy, and be subject to polygraph exams and random searches.

Tennant pled guilty in October to one count of Transportation of Sexually Explicit Images of Minors and one count of Possession of Sexually Explicit Images of Minors. He also agreed to forfeit his computer and related equipment.

Tennant was caught after a Secret Service Agent in Miami went on an Internet chat room using the screen name "miamimisswith2." Tennant, using the screen name "ican9669," responded and quickly sent her images and videos of child pornography, including images of bondage, and images of children as young as four years old. He claimed that one of the pictures was of him with his young niece, and he showed interest in having sex with "miamimiss"'s two daughters, whom the undercover agent had told him were nine and twelve years of age. At one point, during a telephone call, he told the undercover agent that we would buy plane tickets to Boise for the three of them for the following week.

Once Tennant was identified from his screen name and traced to Jerome, local agents of the Secret Service, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Idaho State Police, the FBI and the Twin Falls Police became involved.

On May 1, 2007, after obtaining search warrants for Tennant's home and two vehicles, investigators interviewed Tennant at his place of employment, in the dairy industry. Tennant acknowledged frequently viewing child pornography on a laptop in his car or his employer's truck. He also acknowledged the chats with "miamimisswith2," but said the idea of meeting in Boise was a fantasy. Agents seized two of Tennant's laptops and two thumb drives, which proved to contain several thousand of images of child pornography as well as more than 100 videos, including the ones he had sent to the undercover agent.

According to what Tennant told investigators, he linked to the Internet by "wardriving," which means driving around and stealing Internet access from wireless-equipped facilities. (See www.wardriving.com.) In Tennant's case, these included various dairies to whom he made deliveries. Such a tactic is sometimes used to try to mask illegal activity.

Coincidentally, Tennant's sentencing came on the same day that Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden announced the creation of the Idaho Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force (ICAC), funded by the Department of Justice. Idaho's ICAC will provide much-needed funds to train state and local law enforcement officers in how to investigate child pornography on the Internet and prepare cases for prosecution. It will also allow federal, state and local agencies in Idaho to better share their resources and expertise, said First Assistant U.S. Attorney Marc Haws.

Haws commended the Secret Service in Boise and Miami, Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Twin Falls, the Idaho State Police, the FBI, and the Twin Falls Police Department.

"Mr. Tennant's case is a perfect example of what can be accomplished when we all work together," Haws said. "It began in Miami, moved to Idaho, and was investigated with great skill by a combination of federal, state and local agencies. The result was a sentence that should send a message about how seriously the federal courts take child pornography and internet child exploitation."