Zachary Arzola, a 28-year-old man from Mount Vernon, has been sentenced to 240 months (20 years) in federal prison for child exploitation violations in the Eastern District of Texas. The sentence was handed down by U.S. District Judge Robert W. Schroeder, III on June 5, 2025, after Arzola pleaded guilty to travel with intent to engage in illicit sexual conduct with a minor.
According to information presented in court, Arzola, then 26, began communicating online with a 14-year-old minor victim in September 2022. He used social media applications to engage with her and subsequently traveled to Ohio in December 2022 to meet her. Upon arriving in Ohio, Arzola presented an altered driver's license to the victim's family, falsely claiming he was 16 years old.
After a brief return to Texas, Arzola traveled back to Ohio in January 2023. He picked up the minor victim from her home after her mother left for work and transported her back to Texas with him. The Mount Vernon Police Department discovered the minor victim and Arzola at his home shortly after their arrival in Texas. Arzola admitted in court documents that he persuaded, induced, enticed, and coerced the 14-year-old victim to engage in prohibited sexual activity.
"With the scope and accessibility of social media applications, predators like Arzola are every parent’s worst nightmare,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Jay R. Combs. “Arzola’s despicable crime took online predation to a whole new level. He invented a new identity, lied about his age, and traveled to Ohio to meet the victim and her family. He concocted a plan to kidnap the victim under the guise of elopement and acted on it. The sentence he received should serve as a warning to other online predators that they will get caught, and they will face justice. Parents around our country should take note of the ease with which Arzola was able to exploit technology to lure an innocent child into danger.”
The case was investigated by the Texas Department of Public Safety – Criminal Investigations Division, the Mount Vernon Police Department, and the Clermont (Ohio) County Sheriff’s Office. Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Austin Wells prosecuted the case.
