Seattle – A 29-year-old registered sex offender who had been living in Snohomish County, pleaded guilty today in U.S. District Court in Seattle to two counts of enticement of a minor for his sexual abuse of two 14-year-old teens. Aqeel Ibn-Khalid Shareef was charged by criminal complaint in October 2025, with production of child sexual abuse material. The criminal complaint was filed after a review of his electronic devices revealed images of his sexual abuse of the young victims. U.S. District Judge Kymberly K. Evanson is scheduled for December 14, 2026.
According to records filed in the case, in January 2024, Shareef was convicted of state sex crimes including rape of a child. He was ordered to register as a sex offender. Following his prison term he was being monitored by the Washington State Department of Corrections. In October 2025, Shareef’s DOC Community Corrections Officer became concerned that Shareef had unauthorized electronic devices and began investigating his compliance with supervision. When Shareef was arrested by the Pacific Northwest Violent Offender Task Force, officers seized two unauthorized electronic devices. The investigation revealed that the electronic devices contained communications with two minor victims and sexual abuse images of those victims. Shareef was indicted on November 12, 2025. In his guilty plea, Shareef admits meeting the victims online and communicating with them via Discord, Signal, Instagram, and Tik Tok. One victim was contacted and assaulted in July and August 2025 and the second was contacted and assaulted in September and October 2025.
Enticement of a minor is punishable by a mandatory minimum ten years to life in prison. Prosecutors have agreed to recommend 20 years in prison while the defense can recommend no less than 15 years in prison. Judge Evanson is not bound by the recommendations and can impose any sentence allowed by law. The King County Superior Court case charging these sex crimes will be dismissed in connection with this federal guilty plea.
This case was investigated by the FBI in coordination with the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force (ICAC) with officers from the Seattle Police Department and the Washington State Department of Corrections (DOC).
The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Cecelia Gregson.
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 United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov .