(LAUREL, MD) – Maryland State Police arrested a man Thursday on charges he solicited sex from an undercover trooper who was posing as a child over the Internet in Prince George’s County.

Ricardo Xavier Castillo, 52, of Hanover, Maryland, is charged with one count of sexual solicitation of a minor. He is being held without bail at the Prince George’s County Detention Center.

According to a preliminary investigation, a trooper with the Maryland State Police Computer Crimes Unit on Thursday was monitoring an online dating application while posing as a 14-year-old male. Castillo initiated an online conversation with the goal of soliciting a sexual encounter with the minor.

The suspect suggested meeting with whom he thought was the minor that day in Laurel, Maryland. According to a preliminary investigation, Castillo arrived at that location at about 5:05 p.m. Maryland State Police, with assistance from a special agent assigned to the FBI’s Maryland Child Exploitation Task Force, arrested the suspect at the scene.

The Maryland State Police Computer Crimes Unit coordinates the Maryland Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. This is a combined law enforcement effort involving police departments across Maryland that is made possible in part due to grant funds provided by the Governor’s Office of Crime Prevention, Youth and Victim Services and by a federal grant from the U.S. Department of Justice. Task force investigators focus on identifying those involved in child pornography via the Internet and other related crimes that victimize children.

 Ricardo Xavier Castillo

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 CONTACT: Office of Media Communications, 410-653-4236 or msp.media@maryland.gov