Over the course of several weeks in December 2017, ZARZAR exchanged text messages with a 12-year-old whom ZARZAR had met in person in Brooklyn, New York. ZARZAR repeatedly requested to meet with the victim and, when the victim refused to confirm a date and time, ZARZAR indicated that he had gone to an area near where the victim attended school in order to see her. After law enforcement officials were notified of these text message exchanges, a law enforcement officer operating in an undercover capacity (UC-1) assumed the victim’s identity and began to communicate with ZARZAR from the victim’s cellphone with the consent of her parents. During the course of these conversations, throughout January 2018, ZARZAR requested photographs of the victim, including ones in which the victim was nearly naked, and described explicit sexual activity that he intended to engage in with the victim. During the investigation, law enforcement officials observed ZARZAR standing near the victim’s school for several hours. On February 1, 2018, after ZARZAR and UC-1, who was acting as the victim, arranged to meet in Manhattan, law enforcement officials observed ZARZAR at the pre-arranged meeting location and apprehended him shortly thereafter.
ZARZAR, 30, of Brooklyn, New York, is charged with one count of attempted inducement of a minor under the age of 18 to engage in sexual activity, which carries a mandatory minimum term of 10 years in prison and a maximum of life in prison.
