FIFA match promoter arrested in Galveston on child porn materials, U.S. Attorney's Office says

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- A match promoter with FIFA has been taken into custody and charged with transportation of child pornography, according to the United States Attorney's Office in the Southern District of Texas.

Ali Homoud Alnaimi, 42, is a representative of the Qatar football team and was arrested in Galveston after returning from a cruise to Mexico.

On July 29 at the detention hearing, the court heard there were images found on Alnaimi's phone of young boys under the age of five being sexually exploited. It is alleged that after his arrest, officers also found videos allegedly depicting child pornography. On July 31, he was ordered by the court to remain in custody pending further criminal proceedings.

The USAO website said he arrived in the U.S. with the inappropriate material before traveling to several states and then taking the cruise.

Criminal defense attorney Jed Silverman is not connected to the case but specializes in sex crimes and sex abuses cases.

Silverman said international borders are key to these types of investigations.

"Have a right to be left alone unless you're at an international border, and then you have a lesser expectation of privacy so when you encounter a federal official investigating a crime and you have a device like your iPhone or your iPad, they can get access to it," said criminal defense attorney Jed Silverman. "A lot of investigations that happen at international borders and a lot of times with these types of investigations they'll be an IP address that the federal government is looking at it because they know that it's associated with child pornography and that's kind of the initial hook."

Officials said ICE Homeland Security Investigations conducted the investigation with assistance from Customs and Border Protection.

According to court documents, prosecutors allege that Alnaimi received the child porn on his phone through WhatsApp as early as 2021.

They also accuse him of sharing at least one image to a group of users.

If he is convicted, he faces up to 20 years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine, officials said.