E. Martin Estrada, U.S. Attorney | U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California
A man from Sylmar has been sentenced to 10 years in federal prison for using Instagram to distribute child sexual abuse material and threaten victims. Alejandro Garcia Aranda, 23, was sentenced by United States District Judge Stanley Blumenfeld Jr., who also ordered him to pay $45,000 in restitution to 15 victims. During sentencing, Judge Blumenfeld described the offense as "cruel," "callous," and "monstrous."
Garcia Aranda pleaded guilty in November 2024 to one count of distribution of child pornography and has been in federal custody since July 2024.
In April and May of 2020, Garcia Aranda used the Instagram handle “valleyhoezzz818” with the aim of “[e]xposing all valley hoes with their @’s” to target girls attending schools in the San Fernando Valley. He received payments through Cash App, PayPal, Venmo, and Zelle from customers interested in obtaining sexually explicit content he advertised on his Instagram account. After confirming payment, Garcia Aranda sent a direct message providing a link to a zip file containing child sexual abuse material.
When victims discovered that their explicit materials were being distributed without consent and asked Garcia Aranda to stop, he attempted to extract more explicit material by threatening further exposure.
Garcia Aranda admitted to distributing three sexually explicit videos and one image involving children in May 2020. He also admitted possessing over 600 images of child sexual abuse material.
The FBI conducted the investigation into this case. Assistant United States Attorney Kathy Yu prosecuted it.
