LOS ANGELES
A San Fernando Valley man was arrested Tuesday following a three-count federal grand jury indictment.
The indictment alleges that he used Instagram to advertise sexually explicit images of high school girls without their consent, distributed child sexual abuse material (CSAM), and threatened victims who objected to his actions.
Alejandro Garcia Aranda, 23, of Sylmar, is charged with one count of advertisement of child pornography, one count of distribution of child pornography, and one count of transmitting threatening communications with intent to extort, officials stated.
According to the indictment that a federal grand jury returned on June 27, in April and May of 2020, Aranda 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.
Aranda allegedly used Cash App, PayPal, Venmo, and Zelle to receive payments from customers seeking to obtain sexually explicit content of the victims he had advertised and offered for sale on his Instagram account.
After receiving and confirming payment, Aranda would then allegedly send a direct message to customers via Instagram, providing a link to a zip file containing the sexually explicit photographs of his victims.
When victims discovered that Aranda was advertising and distributing sexually explicit materials depicting them, they requested that he stop and remove the content.
In response, Aranda allegedly attempted to coerce them into providing more sexually explicit material by threatening to post additional photographs.
The defendant is presumed innocent unless proven guilty.
If convicted of all charges, Aranda is facing a long prison sentence, according to authorities:
- A mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years in federal prison
- 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
- Up to 20 years in federal prison for the child pornography distribution count
- Two years in federal prison on the threats count.
The FBI is investigating this matter.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Kathy Yu, Chief of Ethics and Post-Conviction Review, is prosecuting this case.