McALLEN — An Army reservist from Weslaco has pleaded guilty to possession of child sexual abuse material.
“I plead guilty,” Angel Efren Rocha, 21 said as he stood before U.S. District Judge Ricardo H. Hinojosa in a nearly empty courtroom Wednesday afternoon.
At the very back of the gallery, members of Rocha’s family sat silently.
When asked if he understood the charges against him, Rocha said yes.
With his guilty plea on the sole count of the indictment, Rocha admitted to receiving and storing CSAM in a Dropbox account — an online cloud storage tool — that he owned.
According to federal prosecutors, Rocha had used the account to store child sexual abuse material, or CSAM, imagery between Aug. 19, 2019 and May 31, 2020.
Rocha “knowingly received material that had child pornography,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Devin V. Walker said as she read aloud the allegations against him.
Authorities were tipped off to the illicit material by the online storage company, according to the criminal complaint.
“On January 22, 2021, Dropbox, Inc. reported an user (sic) account to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) for suspected child pornography,” the complaint stated.
Once the suspicious activity was detected, Dropbox shut down Rocha’s ability to further access the account.
When investigators reviewed its contents, they discovered two folders — one titled “WHS,” which Rocha said stood for “Weslaco High School,” and another folder that contained CSAM he had obtained from an unknown third party.
Agents identified at least six victims in the WHS folder, Walker said in court.
The second folder contained illicit images of prepubescent victims, she added.
It remains unclear if any of the children identified in the WHS folder are or were from the Rio Grande Valley.
Rocha attended Weslaco High School, then enlisted in the U.S. Army Reserves when he was 17 years old, he said.
There, he continues to serve as a mortuary affairs specialist helping to repatriate the remains of American service members who die overseas.
Authorities arrested Rocha on Aug. 5, 2021.
In June of this year, he reached a plea agreement with prosecutors. In exchange, they have recommended lowering the so-called “offense level” of Rocha’s crime by two levels.
Judges use the offense level to help determine what an appropriate punishment range should be under the Federal Sentencing Guidelines.
They calculate that level through a combination of the charges levied against the defendant, acceptance of responsibility, prior criminal history and other variables.
But Hinojosa reminded Rocha that he is nonetheless facing a mandatory minimum of five years and as much as 20 years in federal prison, regardless of the prosecutor’s recommendations.
He also faces up to a $250,000 fine and will have to register as a sex offender.
Rocha said he understood.
With that, Hinojosa accepted Rocha’s guilty plea and set sentencing for Feb. 27, 2023.
