Google alert leads to child pornography charges against Weslaco man

A grand jury indicted a Weslaco man last week on child pornography charges after Google alerted federal investigators about a suspicious account.

Auhotities found more than 500 videos and 100 images of children engaging in sexual acts with adults in Gino Graydon Garcia’s possession, according to a criminal complaint filed against him.

Garcia was also allegedly trying to solicit a minor through a video chat room application known as ShowMe.

The investigation began after Google alerted the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children about a suspicious Google account.

The nonprofit, which was established in 1984 by Congress to protect children, then contacted the Texas Attorney General’s office, and the AG worked with the Valley Child Exploitation Task Force, which is led by Homeland Security Investigations, to investigate Garcia’s Gmail account.

After applying and receiving a state search warrant for the Google account, special agents found hundreds of videos and images depicting child sexual abuse. They were uploaded to the account on Jan. 30, 2021, and one particular video appeared to be created and uploaded on May 13, 2021.

The complaint said agents also found files and images that helped identify Garcia, including an image of a paystub from Whataburger and another image that showed his employee information, including his name, social security number, date of birth, address and employee number.

Garcia also had several self-portrait images and videos, including one in which he was using the video chat room application ShowMe.

In the video, Garcia is seen fondling himself as he connects with a naked girl in Indonesia who appears to be between the ages of 5 and 7.

The document said Garcia typed “let’s be friends” in the chat box, but the girl disconnected after a minute and 8 seconds.

Garcia then paid 9 coins to unlock an extra feature where he’s allowed to contact the girl, but the video displays a “busy” signal.

Garcia is set to stand before Magistrate Judge Juan F. Alanis for his arraignment in late November.