The country’s proximity to the United States and its idyllic beaches make it an easy vacation destination for many, but the country’s poverty means that children looking for a way to support their families can be targeted by abusers.

“There is no immunity for these heinous crimes, whether committed at home or abroad,” Benjamin G. Greenberg, the United States attorney for the Southern District of Florida, said in a statement.

According to court records, Mr. Symonds messaged the girls on Facebook, asking them repeatedly if they belonged to him and requesting that they send him nude photos of themselves. When the girls sent him partly nude photos, he responded, “No clothes, my God,” urging them to strip further. Mr. Symonds also sent the girls seminude photos of themselves from past visits, including one showing him and one of the girls lying down together, both partly clothed, according to the court documents.

Some of the most revealing messages were not sent to the girls but instead to a person who appeared to be a worried male friend of his in the Dominican Republic, whose initials are A.R. Facebook messages between the men were confiscated by the authorities. Following is a partial text of them, translated from Spanish:

A.R.: oh my, be careful

A.R.: with your underage women

Symonds: lol

A.R.: Be careful

Symonds: a lot of minors, my god

A.R.: ok bro, whats going on?

Symonds: I thought she was 20

A.R.: she’s 13 bro, what’s going on?

Mr. Symonds went on to tell A.R. that it was O.K. that the girl was 13 because he was friends with police officers and her family. His friend informed him that everyone was saying Mr. Symonds was the 13-year-old girl’s first sexual encounter. Mr. Symonds responded that her mother knew about their relationship and that everything was O.K. His friend continued to warn him to be careful.