A 23-year-old Sylmar man was sentenced Tuesday to 10 years behind bars for using Instagram to advertise sexually explicit photographs of local girls that he offered to sell over the internet.
Alejandro Garcia Aranda was also ordered by U.S. District Judge Stanley Blumenfeld Jr. to pay $45,000 in restitution to 15 victims, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
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Aranda pleaded guilty in November in downtown Los Angeles to one federal count of distribution of child pornography.
According to the indictment, in April and May of 2020, Aranda used the Instagram handle "valleyhoezzz818" with the self-proclaimed goal of targeting girls who attended schools in the San Fernando Valley.
Prosecutors said Aranda received payments from customers who wanted to obtain sexually explicit content of the victims that he had advertised and offered to sell on Instagram.
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 attempted to extract additional sexually explicit material from them, including by threatening to post further photographs, the indictment states.
He was charged in June 2024 with one count of advertisement of child pornography, one count of distribution of child pornography, and one count transmitting threatening communications with intent to extort, court papers show.
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