A man from Pottawattamie County was sentenced Thursday in U-S District Court in Council Bluffs, to more than 27-years in prison for receipt of child pornography.  The U-S Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa reports a U-S District Court Judge also ordered 37-year old Justin Stephen Martinez to serve a term of supervised release for 20-years, following his 333 month long incarceration. ,

Authorities say an investigation into Martinez’ activities began in December 2017, when an undercover law enforcement agent received notification that an IP address, identified as being used by Martinez, was sharing multiple files containing child pornography on a peer-to-peer program file sharing program for approximately one year. The investigation showed Martinez had received and distributed over a thousand images of child pornography. In addition, it was determined Martinez had sexually explicit images of his twelve year old niece and had sexual contact with her.

Martinez was previously convicted of Third Degree Sexual Abuse of a Child in 2005 in Pottawattamie County District Court. His case was investigated by the Iowa Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, Pottawattamie County Sheriff’s Office, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The case was prosecuted by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa.