A Jemison man pleaded guilty to transporting sexually explicit pictures of a minor on Thursday, according to U.S. Attorney Stephanie A. Finley in Louisiana.

Mario Duran, 49, of Jemison, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Richard T. Haik from the Western District of Louisiana to one count of transporting child pornography.

According to evidence presented when he pleaded guilty, Acadia Parish Sheriff’s deputies, while investigating another case, made contact with Duran in April 2014 while he was parked in his truck in the Crowley, La., Walmart parking lot, according to a release from the United States Attorney’s Office of the Western District of Louisiana.

Present with Duran were two females who were minors. The minors said they did not know Duran and that he had picked them up in Alabama and was transporting them to Texas to meet their father, the release said.

The vehicle was searched, and three cell phones were found, according to the release.

Upon further investigation, law enforcement agents found “sexually explicit pictures” of a minor on one of the phones.

The images on the phone were not of the minors Duran was transporting, the release said.

Duran faces five to 20 years in prison, five years to life of supervise release, a $250,000 fine and registration as a sex offender. A sentencing date has not been set.

The case was part of Project Safe Childhood, a U.S. Department of Justice nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse.

Led by U.S. Attorney’s Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood utilizes 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, visit, www.projectsafechildhood.gov.

Homeland Security Investigations and the Acadia Parish Sheriff’s Office conducted the investigation.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jamilla A. Bynog and Myer P. Namie are prosecuting the case.