U.S. District Judge Lawrence L. Piersol has sentenced a Dell Rapids, South Dakota, man convicted of Attempted Receipt of Child Pornography. The sentencing took place on October 15, 2024. Dylan Ryan, age 25, was sentenced to five years in federal prison, followed by five years of supervised release, and a special assessment to the Federal Crime Victims Fund in the amount of $100. Upon his release from federal prison, Ryan must register as a sex offender. Ryan was indicted by a federal grand jury in April of 24. He pleaded guilty on July 29, 2024. The conviction stemmed from an incident on March 9, 2024, when Ryan, while using his cellular phone and the social media application Reddit, attempted to receive images of child pornography from an undercover agent posing as a 13-year-old female. Ryan drove to a park in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, to meet with the undercover agent and was subsequently arrested. This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse, launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the DOJ’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children, as well as identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit https://www.justice.gov/psc. This case was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations, the South Dakota Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, and the Sioux Falls Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorney Elizabeth A. Ebert-Webb prosecuted the case. Ryan was immediately remanded to the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service.