Medellín, Colombia – Medellín Mayor Federico Gutiérrez announced on June 27 that the United States had sentenced Stefan Andrés Correa, an Ecuadoran-American from Miami, to life in prison after being found guilty of committing serial sexual crimes in the Colombian city.
Correa had been arrested on April 19, 2024, when Miami law enforcement officers prevented him from boarding a flight to Colombia after it was discovered that he had traveled to the country 45 times in two years.
Once detained, authorities discovered that the 42-year-old pharmacist had nine cellphones, containing over 100 explicit videos of him engaging in sexual activities with minors, as well as chat exchanges with a suspected sex trafficker, where the Floridian requested commercial sex with girls “10 to 12 years old,” in exchange of 300,000 Colombian pesos ($73 USD).
Image Source: Federico Gutierrez via X.
“The United States of America will always seek to protect children near and far. This prosecution and this sentence should serve as a warning to any predator who is trying to travel through our District to prey on children. We will find you and prosecute you to the fullest extent of the law […] Predators such as Correa are a scourge upon humanity, and must be dealt with accordingly,” U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida Hayden P. O’Byrne noted.
In a letter to the judge, Correa admitted he had an unhealthy “yet treatable sex drive,” and claimed to be taking accountability for his actions, as per the Miami Herald.
According to the Colombian Ministry of Defense, however, over 50 children aged 9 to 17 years old identified him as their abuser.
“This sentence is the product of the Cazador Operation, an example of what can be achieved with intelligence, international cooperation and, above all, decisive action in combatting such crimes,” Mayor Gutiérrez noted through social media.
The politician also thanked American agencies for their aid in arresting and convicting Correa, including the Department of Homeland Security, the State Department, the Justice Department, and the Southern District of Florida Attorney’s Office.
As per Gutiérrez, the Cazador (Hunter) Operation, also known as Cazador Plan, has also led to the arrest of two procurers linked to Correa’s Medellín crimes, one of whom was already sentenced to 21 years in prison.
Cazador is Medellín’s security strategy which was developed alongside the National Police, and aims at combatting crime through advanced technologies, including video surveillance throughout the city’s Integrated System of Emergencies and Security. The measures have been deployed in known crime-prone areas.
In June 2025, other alleged criminals were arrested through Cazador, including a femicide perpetrator, several robbers, and a drug trafficker.
Colombia’s sex tourism problem
Regardless, Correa’s U.S. conviction highlights a deeply pressing issue: Medellín’s underage sex tourism.
In Colombia, sex work is neither criminalized nor illegal, and the Constitutional Court has upheld sex workers’ rights on multiple occasions. Still, Colombian law mandates that sex workers be over 18 years old and comply with health regulations.
Image Source: Sara Jaramillo via X.
State authorities can only intervene in cases of forced prostitution, exploitation, or when sex workers are in situations of vulnerability, such as being minors or persons with disabilities.
At the time of Correa’s arrest last year, Mayor Gutiérrez held a press conference in which he affirmed that U.S. cooperation in the case was motivated by the case of Timothy Alan Livingston, an Ohio man who was found at a Medellín hotel on March 28, 2024 while allegedly sexually abusing two minors.
Although Livingston was briefly detained, he was released within hours and allowed to travel back to the United States, effectively avoiding punishment in Colombia, as reported by newspaper El País. Since the events, Interpol issued a blue notice for the 38-year-old American, and police officers at the scene have been charged with failure to carry out required duties by the Colombian Attorney General’s Office.
However, as found in an investigation by Colombian investigative journalism outlet Vorágine, the criminal networks which operate child sex tourism schemes are led by Colombian nationals who contact minors through social media to “bait” them into sex work in exchange for housing, food, money or drugs.
These exploitative networks also operate with links to legal businesses, like hotels or private transportation companies, as signaled by investigators.
Image Source: Federico Gutiérrez via X.
As of June 4, 2025, authorities in Medellín had arrested 39 individuals for sexual offenses involving minors, and the recent U.S. involvement in profiling and detaining these criminals before they land in Colombia seems promising to Mayor Gutiérrez.
“The work between Medellín’s Mayor’s Office, the National Police, and all intelligence agencies of the United States just had its first success with the arrest of Stefan Andrés Correa,” he noted on social media.
Regardless, a recent study found that the security strategies implemented to combat child sex tourism in the city have been ineffective, claiming that measures should go beyond law enforcement, adopting a comprehensive public policy that addresses the issue’s social and economic roots.
Featured image credit:
Image: South Florida U.S. Attorney and Colombian National Police and Medellín Mayor’s Office representatives.
Author: USA Attorney SDFL
Source: US Attorney SDFL via X
