Disclaimer: This story contains descriptions of sexual violence against children. Reader discretion is advised.
A Long Beach man has avoided arrest for over two years after sexually abusing a young girl overseas.
Ivan Lozano, 38, is accused of asking an underage girl in Tanzania to send sexually explicit images of herself to him, and later traveling to Tanzania, where the FBI said he raped the girl and recorded it.
Lozano is also accused of possessing over 4,000 images and videos of children being sexually abused, according to court documents.
In December 2019, when Lozano was 33 years old, he used social media to initiate communication with a 14-year-old girl living in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Lozano allegedly spent the first year of their communication speaking with the victim about her interests and her daily life. After a year of speaking with her online, he escalated his behavior and began asking the girl for nude photos and videos.
Court documentation includes messages that federal investigators said were sent between Lozano and the victim. In the messages the FBI said are between Lozano and the victim, it appeared he had groomed the girl for sexual abuse, and she was under the impression Lozano cared for her and would start a family with her one day.
The week before the victim turned 16 years old, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said Lozano traveled to Dar es Salaam, where he recorded a video of himself raping the victim.
The FBI said the victim’s mother became aware of her daughter’s relationship with Lozano in January 2022.
The victim’s father sent a series of emails to the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), telling police Lozano was sexually abusing their daughter. The LAPD referred the case to the FBI, who then asked the victim and her parents to come into the United States embassy in Dar es Salaam to speak with investigators.
After gathering evidence by speaking with the victim and searching her phone, the FBI executed a search warrant on the home Lozano shares with his mother in North Long Beach. During the search, the FBI said agents seized numerous devices that were later found to contain thousands of images and videos of children being abused.
The FBI said the images and videos they found on Lozano’s devices were sent to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), which keeps a database of children known to be victims of child pornographers.
The database lists the online nickname the children are known by, as well as their estimated ages, ethnicities, nationalities and more, in the hopes that the information can one day be used by authorities to locate and rescue them.
The FBI said NCMEC found that over 300 of the videos and over 300 of the images found on Lozano’s devices depicted victims that were already in its database. Court documents contain graphic descriptions of some of the videos, which includes a 15-second video of an infant being raped.
According to an article by the Long Beach Post, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said Lozano was not arrested at the time the search warrant was served because the evidence gathered still had to be looked at by investigators.
Before he could be arrested, Lozano went on the run. He still hasn’t been caught.
The Signal Tribune attempted to call Lozano, but his phone numbers have been disconnected. The Signal Tribune also visited his mother’s home in North Long Beach, but she declined to speak about the case.
This case is a chilling reminder of the dangers posed by online predators and the devastating impact they can have on vulnerable children worldwide. The FBI’s work in uncovering Lozano’s actions and identifying victims through the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s database is critical, yet it’s disturbing to see how such abuse can go unchecked for so long. The fact that Lozano is still at large after two years raises important questions about the effectiveness of international law enforcement coordination. It’s crucial we continue strengthening these efforts to protect children and hold perpetrators accountable, no matter where they are. How long will it take before we see real change in how these cases are handled on a global scale?