LA man gets 10 years for selling child porn on Instagram
CANADA - 2025/01/28: In this photo illustration, the Instagram logo is seen displayed on a smartphone screen. (Photo Illustration by Thomas Fuller/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
LOS ANGELES - A Sylmar man will spend the next decade in prison for using social media to sell child pornography.
According to his indictment, he specifically targeted girls at schools in the San Fernando Valley.
The backstory:
Alejandro Garcia Aranda was charged with advertising and distributing child porn back in June 2024.
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He pleaded guilty in November 2024 to one federal charge of distribution of child pornography.
What we know:
Aranda was sentenced to 10 years in prison on Tuesday.
According to the indictment, Aranda used an Instagram account with the handle "valleyhoezzz818" to share explicit photos of the young girls. The account claimed that it was targeting girls who went to schools in the San Fernando Valley.
Prosecutors said multiple people paid Aranda for the images that he had advertised. Several of his victims eventually discovered that Aranda was advertising or selling images of them.
When they asked Aranda to stop and to take the photos down, prosecutors said Aranda threatened to post other photos of them in an attempt to get them to send him more.
What's next:
In addition to his prison sentence, a U.S. District Judge ordered Aranda to pay $45,000 in restitution to 15 victims.
The Source: Information in this story is from the U.S. Attorney's Office. City News Service contributed to this report.