State Police Arrest Anne Arundel County Man For Sexual Solicitation Of A Minor

Maryland State Police arrested a man Thursday on charges he solicited sex from an undercover trooper who was posing as a child over the Internet. 

Ricardo Xavier Castillo, 52, of Hanover, Maryland, is charged with one count of sexual solicitation of a minor. He is being held without bail at an area detention center.

According to a preliminary investigation, a trooper with the Maryland State Police Computer Crimes Unit on Thursday was monitoring an online dating application while posing as a 14-year-old male. Castillo initiated an online conversation with the goal of soliciting a sexual encounter with the minor.

The suspect suggested meeting with whom he thought was the minor that day in Laurel, Maryland. According to a preliminary investigation, Castillo arrived at that location at about 5:05 p.m. Maryland State Police, with assistance from a special agent assigned to the FBI’s Maryland Child Exploitation Task Force, arrested the suspect at the scene.