A University student is awaiting sentencing after he pleaded guilty May 16 on charges of possession of child pornography.

Under the plea deal, 40-year-old Oscar Hernando Moreno Torres, of 2000 block of South Orchard Lane, faces up to three-and-a-half years in prison and a 10-year term of supervised release. Torres, who is from Colombia and holds a student visa, will also have to register as a sex offender.

He was arrested late November after a joint investigative effort, between the United States Department of Justice and the Urbana and Champaign police departments called “Operation Blue Monday”, led to eight defendants being charged. Among those charged were Mu-Tsun Tsai, a graduate student from Taiwan. He was charged with three counts of distribution and one count possession of child pornography.

According to the plea deal, Urbana Police investigator Tim McNaught began looking into peer-to-peer sharing networks for the exchange of child pornography in May 2012 and identified the computer as well as the hash, the DNA for a particular computer file, shortly thereafter. After a subpoena was issued to the University — McNaught had identified a University IP address — investigators discovered it was Torres who had downloaded the initial file that was under inquiry.

Investigators also found more videos on an external computer hard drive, which they found after a search of Torres’ home.

Assistant U.S. attorney Elly Peirson said Torres could’ve faced a maximum of 10 years, along with a maximum $250,000 fine, if he didn’t accept the bargain.