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Angel Gabriel Arroyo-Angelino, 34, who resides in Easton, has been sentenced to 18 years in federal prison followed by a lifetime of supervised release for coercion and enticement of a minor to engage in illegal sexual activity.
US Attorney Erek Barron said that Arroyo admitted that he pretended to be a teenage boy on social media accounts, in order to induce minor females to produce and send him sexually explicit images and videos of themselves.
A judge also ordered that upon his release from prison, Arroyo be required to register as a sexual offender where he lives, works, or is a student.
Between Dec. 24, 2017, and Sept. 11, 2018, prosecutors say that Arroyo used the alias “Elias Garcia” to create a social media account.
Arroyo used the social media account to persuade, induce, and coerce four juvenile victims to produce and send him photos and videos of themselves.
Prosecutors said that Arroyo initiated contact with each of the minor victims on social media and told the victims that he was 16 years old, using a profile picture depicting a teenage boy to manipulate the minors he met online.
Arroyo complimented the minors, sent them images of flowers and money, and made other romantic overtures to the minor victims, Barron noted.
“From these communications, Arroyo knew that the victims were underage minors,” added. “Despite that knowledge, Arroyo persuaded the victims to send him nude images, often sending them cash in the mail if they sent the sexually explicit images and videos he requested.”
Arroyo’s misconduct came to light in May 2018, at which point the social media platform he was using to target the minors terminated the “Elias Garcia” account, while tipping off the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children to an explicit conversation he had with a 15-year-old girl.
After receiving the Cybertip, investigators at the Easton Police Department obtained a series of search warrants for online and phone accounts associated with the “Elias Garcia” persona, and after gathering additional information, obtained a search warrant to search Arroyo’s residence in Easton on Sept. 11, 2018.
While executing the search warrant, prosecutors say that detectives discovered a white envelope in Arroyo’s bedroom that contained a $50 bill that was addressed to a 12-year-old girl.
Investigators discovered that Arroyo had been engaging in communications with the 12-year-old through social media, offering her money in exchange for sexually explicit photos.
In addition to the white envelope, investigators also discovered a black cell phone hidden in Arroyo’s bedroom, officials said.
A subsequent review of the contents of the cell phone revealed sexually explicit images of several of the minor victims, as well as evidence linking Arroyo to the “Elias Garcia” communications and to another alias “Emiel Quiross” that Arroyo used to create an additional social media account after the social media platform shut down his “Elias Garcia” account.
Investigators then obtained a search warrant and discovered that Arroyo used the “Emiel Quiross” account to coerce and entice two additional minor victims to produce and send him sexually explicit images of themselves.
Arroyo employed a similar pattern to manipulate his last two victims by pretending to be a 16-year-old boy and offering the minors cash in exchange for sending him close-up images of their genitals.
The attempted subterfuge didn’t stop there.
On the day of his arrest on Sept. 11, 2018, Arroyo agreed to speak with investigators.
During that interview, Arroyo used another alias when identifying himself to investigators and did not provide his real name. He admitted that the cell phone and white envelope found in his bedroom belonged to him.
Arroyo further claimed that he was mailing the money to his “ex-girlfriend.”
When asked why (one of his underage victims’) name was handwritten on the top-left “sender” portion of the envelope, Arroyo denied knowing the girl, and claimed that he made up the name of a woman to place on the envelope so his “ex-girlfriend’s” new boyfriend would not become suspicious regarding the source of the money she received in the envelope.
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