Man trying to expose high schoolers sold their explicit photos using Instagram, feds say
A southern California man made money selling sexually explicit photos of local high school students as part of a “self-proclaimed” mission to expose them, federal prosecutors said.
Alejandro Garcia Aranda, 23, of Sylmar, advertised the content using Instagram, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California. Sylmar is a neighborhood located in Los Angeles.
He targeted girls attending high schools in the San Fernando Valley in April and May of 2020, prosecutors said.
On his Instagram account, Garcia Aranda boasted that he was “exposing” local students while advertising their images for sale, according to court documents.
A federal judge sentenced Garcia Aranda on Feb. 18 to 10 years in prison on a charge of distribution of child pornography, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a news release.
The judge ordered him to pay 15 victims $45,000 in restitution, prosecutors said.
His federal public defender didn’t immediately respond to McClatchy News’ request for comment Feb. 19.
In exchange for sexually explicit photos of high school students that Garcia Aranda advertised on Instagram, customers paid him over Cash App, PayPal, Venmo and Zelle, according to prosecutors.
After receiving the online payments, prosecutors said Garcia Aranda sent a link to a zip file containing the content. He’s accused of sharing the link in direct messages to customers.
Students who later confronted Garcia Aranda about him advertising and selling their photos were threatened, according to prosecutors, who didn’t specify how he obtained the content.
Garcia Aranda warned students who asked him to stop that he’d share more explicit photos and tried “to extract further additional sexually explicit material from them,” prosecutors said.
An investigation led by the FBI revealed Garcia Aranda had more than 600 images of child sexual abuse material, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
“Some of the videos and images depicted minor victims under the age of 12 being used for sexual acts, as well as material that depicted sadistic or masochistic conduct or other depictions of violence, or sexual abuse or exploitation of an infant or toddler,” prosecutors wrote in court documents.
At Garcia Aranda’s sentencing hearing, U.S. District Judge Stanley Blumenfeld Jr. called Aranda’s actions “cruel,” “callous” and “monstrous,” according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
McClatchy News contacted Meta, which owns Instagram, for comment and didn’t immediately receive a response.
Suspected child sexual exploitation can be reported online to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children’s CyberTipline or by calling the organization’s call center at 1-800-843-5678
This story was originally published February 19, 2025 at 4:50 PM with the headline "Man trying to expose high schoolers sold their explicit photos using Instagram, feds say."
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