The FBI lodged a criminal complaint against a 38-year-old man and his accomplice for transporting a minor from Nipomo to Mexico with the intent to engage in an illicit sexual relationship.
According to the charge filed by Special Agent Brian Sullivan on July 11, Daniel Navarro of Victorville posed as a teenager on Instagram and sent explicit messages to a 15-year-old from Arizona, whom the document named A.T. Communicating since February, Navarro and A.T. entered an online romantic relationship and he discussed impregnating her.
Ring security camera footage caught A.T., who was spending the summer with her step-grandmother in Nipomo, sneaking out the front door in the early hours of July 1. The federal complaint included testimony from A.T.’s cousin, who saw a large, dark vehicle near the residence late on June 30. According to law enforcement, Navarro and his accomplice, Julia Le from Garden Grove, arrived in that car to pick up and hide A.T. in the backseat and drive to the U.S.-Mexico border.
Missing for roughly 10 days, A.T.’s disappearance rocked Nipomo, with calls for information flooding social media platforms. The San Luis Obispo Sheriff’s Office received the missing person report at 6:30 a.m. on July 1, according to spokesperson Tony Cipolla.
“The Sheriff’s Office began an immediate investigation. Since the Sheriff’s Office is the lead investigator, our detectives will work with the U.S. Attorney’s Office with their prosecution of this case,” Cipolla told the Sun.
Signed off by the SLO County Superior Court, a warrant directing T-Mobile to provide historical GPS locations of the perpetrators’ cellphones helped authorities track them.
The complaint stated that Navarro and Le were detained on outstanding arrest warrants on July 10 while reentering the United States. By then, they had taken A.T. to Navarro’s father’s house in Mexico, which the pair admitted to officials. As part of the investigation, FBI detectives spoke to Navarro’s ex-wife, who informed them that he had picked up their children and taken them to his father’s house around the same time. Le had also sent Navarro’s ex-wife videos of the children at that residence. Detectives then used geolocation data from those videos to find the house and, subsequently, A.T.
She has been reunited with her family.
Navarro and Le made their first court appearance in relation to the federal charges on July 13 at the United States District Court in downtown Los Angeles. The charges carry a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in federal prison and a potential of life without parole. The SLO County District Attorney’s Office also assisted the FBI with investigation.
“The matter will be prosecuted in federal court by the United States Attorney’s Office,” Assistant DA Eric Dobroth told the Sun. “The [SLO County DA’s Office] prosecutes state law violations and will not be involved in the prosecution in federal court, absent a request for assistance. Federal law provides substantial and heavier penalties for the conduct than do our state laws.”
This article appears in Jul 21-28, 2022.