A California man is facing federal charges after allegedly using Instagram to advertise and distribute sexually explicit images of underage girls, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Alejandro Garcia Aranda, 23, was arrested on a three-count indictment. He is accused of:
- Advertising child pornography: Prosecutors say Aranda used an Instagram account to advertise sexually explicit images of high school girls without their permission.
- Distributing child pornography: Aranda allegedly distributed the illicit material to those who responded to his advertisements.
- Extortion: The indictment further claims Aranda threatened victims who objected to their images being shared online, demanding additional explicit content.
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The investigation leading to Aranda’s arrest remains ongoing.
According to the Department of Justice, the man used the Instagram handle “valleyhoezzz818” with the self-proclaimed goal of “[e]xposing all valley hoes with their @’s” to target local girls who attended schools in the San Fernando Valley.
Using Cash App, PayPal, Venmo, and Zelle, Aranda allegedly received payments from customers who wanted to obtain sexually explicit content of the victims that he had advertised and offered to sell on the Instagram account.
After receiving and confirming payment, using the Instagram account, Aranda then allegedly sent a direct message to customers and provided a link to a zip file containing the sexually explicit photographs of his victims.
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When victims discovered that sexually explicit materials depicting them were being advertised and disseminated by Aranda and requested that he stop and remove them, Aranda allegedly attempted to extract further additional sexually explicit material from them, including by threatening to post additional photographs.
If convicted of all charges, Aranda would face a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years in federal prison and a statutory maximum sentence of 30 years in federal prison for the child pornography advertisement count, a mandatory minimum sentence of five years in federal prison, and up to 20 years in federal prison for the child pornography distribution count, and up to two years in federal prison on the threats count.
The FBI is investigating this case.
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