Sylmar man sentenced for selling explicit photos of high school girls on Instagram

A Sylmar man was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison on Tuesday for distributing sexually explicit images of high school girls without their permission and threatening those who objected.

The man, identified as 23-year-old Alejandro Garcia Aranda, had to pay $45,000 in total restitution to 15 victims, according to the Department of Justice.

In sentencing Aranda, the DOJ said the judge emphasized the “cruel,” “callous” and “monstrous” nature of the offense.

Aranda used the social media site Instagram to advertise and distribute links to the child sexual abuse material (CSAM), according to the DOJ.

“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,” the DOJ said in a statement.

Customers would pay Aranda through Cash App, Paypal, Venmo and Zelle in exchange for the CSAM that he advertised on Instagram.

After getting paid, the DOJ said Aranda would send a direct message to customers with a link to a zip file containing the material.

Victims eventually discovered that nonconsensual photos of them were being advertised and disseminated by Aranda. 

When the victims asked Aranda to stop and remove their photos, the DOJ said Aranda “attempted to extract further additional sexually explicit material from them, including by threatening to post additional photographs.”

Aranda was eventually brought into federal custody in July 2024.

Aranda admitted to knowingly distributing CSAM including three sexually explicit videos and one image involving children, in May 2020.

In addition, Aranda admitted to having more than 600 images of CSAM in his possession.