LOS ANGELES - A San Fernando Valley man was arrested today on a three-count federal grand jury indictment alleging he used Instagram to advertise sexually explicit images of high school girls without their permission, to distribute child sexual abuse material (CSAM) and to further threaten victims who objected to his behavior.

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 transmitting threatening communications with intent to extort.

Aranda's arraignment is scheduled for this afternoon in United States District Court in downtown Los Angeles.

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.

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.

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.

An indictment contains allegations that a defendant has committed a crime. Every defendant is presumed to be innocent until and unless proven guilty in court.

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 matter.

Assistant United States Attorney Kathy Yu, Chief of Ethics and Post-Conviction Review, is prosecuting this case.

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