BALTIMORE- A 34-year-old Mexican citizen living in Easton, Md., is facing up to life in prison after pleading guilty on Wednesday to coercion and enticement of a minor to engage in illegal sexual activity.
Federal prosecutors said that Angel Gabriel Arroyo-Angelino (“Arroyo”) admitted that he pretended to be a teenage boy on social media accounts, in order to induce minor females to produce and send to him, sexually explicit images and videos of themselves.
The guilty plea was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Erek L. Barron; Special Agent in Charge Thomas J. Sobocinski of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Baltimore Field Office; Chief Allen Lowrey of the Easton Police Department; and Talbot County State’s Attorney Scott G. Patterson.
According to his guilty plea, from Dec. 24, 2017 through Sept. 11, 2018, Arroyo used the alias “Elias Garcia” to create a social media account. Arroyo used the social media account to persuade, induce, and coerce four minor victims to produce and send him sexually explicit images and videos of themselves. Arroyo initiated contact with each of the minor victims on social media and told the victims that he was 16 years old.
Arroyo used a profile picture depicting a teenaged 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. From these communications, Arroyo knew that the victims were underaged minors. 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.
The social media platform became aware of Arroyo’s misconduct in May of 2018 and terminated his Elias Garcia account. The social media platform also alerted the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and submitted a cybertip detailing a sexually explicit online conversation that Arroyo had with one of the victims, a 15-year-old girl (Victim #3), which culminated in the minor sending Arroyo a sexually explicit video of herself.
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, detectives discovered a white envelope in Arroyo’s bedroom that contained a $50 bill. The envelope was addressed to an individual later identified as a 12-year-old female and victim #3’s name was handwritten in the area where “sender” information is customarily placed. Investigators discovered that Arroyo had been engaging in communications with the 12-year-old minor through social media, offering her money in exchange of sexually explicit photos.
In addition to the white envelope, investigators also discovered a cell phone hidden in Arroyo’s bedroom. 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” Arroyo used to create an additional social media account. Investigators obtained a search warrant to search this newly discovered alias account and discovered that Arroyo used the “Emiel Quiross” account to coerce and entice two additional minor victims, Victim #5 and Victim #6, to produce and send to him, sexually explicit images of themselves. Arroyo employed a similar pattern to manipulate Victim #5 and Victim #6, by pretending to be a 16-year-old boy and offering the minor females cash in exchange for sending him close-up images of the victims’ genitals. The “Emiel Quiross” account was created by Arroyo after the social media platform shut down his “Elias Garcia” account.
On Sept. 11, 2018, after voluntarily waiving his Miranda rights Arroyo agreed to speak with investigators. During the interview, Arroyo admitted that the cell phone and white envelope found in his bedroom belonged to him. Arroyo claimed that he was using the envelope to mail money to his “ex-girlfriend.” When asked why Victim #3’s name was handwritten on the top-left “sender” portion of the envelope, Arroyo denied knowing Victim #3, and claimed that he made up the name of a girl 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. During the interview, Arroyo used another alias when identifying himself to investigators and did not provide his real name.
Arroyo faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in federal prison and a maximum of life in prison for enticement and coercion of a minor to engage in illegal sexual activity. Chief United States District Judge James K. Bredar has scheduled sentencing for Oct. 4, 2022 at 1 a.m.
As stated in his plea agreement, upon his release from prison, Arroyo will be required to register as a sex offender in the places where he resides, where he is an employee, and where he is a student, under the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act.
