An Edinburg man was arrested Wednesday after he admitted to investigators that he might have thousands of images of child sex abuse material on his phone across several applications, according to a criminal complaint.
Lazaro Yahir Segundo-Vazquez was charged with knowingly receiving and distributing child pornography by phone over the course of several months.
According to the complaint, the Rio Grande Valley Child Exploitation Investigation Task Force was contacted by the Texas Attorney General’s Office on May 4 last year with an investigative referral forwarded to them by Google, which had intercepted a suspicious account that was later associated with Segundo.
Using this information, investigators identified Segundo and encountered him at his residence on Wednesday.
Segundo agreed to speak to the investigators after they identified themselves.
During this consensual interview, Segundo acknowledged what child pornography was and that it was illegal leading investigators to ask for consent to look through Segundo’s phone which he agreed to.
“The cellular device of Segundo had several online applications which contained images and videos depicting prepubescent children engaged in sex acts with adults and other children, constituting child pornography pursuant to 18 United States Code Section 2256,” the complaint said.
Segundo then admitted to knowingly receiving and distributing child sex abuse material, or CSAM, using his cell phone from April 6 of last year through Sunday using various online applications.
He added that there may be thousands of videos and or images of CSAM on his phone and that his previous Google account had been shut down.
Segundo’s detention hearing is scheduled for next week where he’ll appear before U.S. Magistrate Judge J. Scott Hacker in the afternoon.
