The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas announced on Tuesday that two men from Hidalgo County pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography.
Hugo Benjamin Tijerina, 36, and Gabriel Alejandro Morales, 27, admitted to receiving child sex abuse material through a cell phone and laptop in separate cases.
In the case of Morales, he admitted to receiving and distributing the child pornography using the cell phone application Kik.
According to a release, authorities learned of a person with the username “wakatanga335” on Kik receiving and distributing child sexual abuse material, or CSAM, approximately nine times in November of 2020.
“The investigation led to Morales,” the release said. “Law enforcement executed a search warrant at his McAllen home and discovered a cell phone containing child pornography.”
Tijerina was found to be downloading CSAM on his laptop using peer-to-peer software after authorities identified an IP address associated with a home in Pharr on July 15, 2019.
A search of the home revealed a laptop that contained the software used to download the child pornography which included images of children under the age of 12.
Both men are scheduled to be sentenced in June.
