A US national was sentenced to 22 years in federal prison for travelling to Cambodia to sexually abuse at least five boys in 2008, according to the US Department of Justice.

Erik Leonardus Peeters, 48, of Norwalk, California, was sentenced by a US district judge on Wednesday, according to the department’s statement. Peeters was also ordered to pay $15,000 in restitution to his victims.

“This defendant is a sexual predator who repeatedly victimized young boys, several of whom have physical disabilities, and all of whom come from deeply impoverished communities,” US attorney Eileen Decker said in the statement.

Peeters was among the first to be charged under an US law-enforcement operation targeting Americans who travelled to Cambodia specifically to have sex with minors.

He was arrested by Cambodian police and deported in 2009, and pled guilty in the US in March 2012 to two counts of child sex abuse abroad.