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An Edinburg man was indicted Tuesday following an investigation that revealed his attempts to entice a person under the age of 18 to engage in sexual activity with him, according to court documents.
Santos Emilio Marcial-Castro, 30, has been charged with coercing a 15-year-old girl into engaging in sexual activity with him using the social media application Snapchat.
According to the criminal complaint, a Homeland Security Investigations-led task force on April 27 identified a 15-year-old victim and conducted a consensual search of their mobile device.
HSI observed a chat communication on Snapchat between the victim and a username that’s been redacted in the complaint but later identified as Marcial-Castro.
The conversation between Marcial-Castro and the victim took place between May 7, 2021 and April 25, and she told him that she was 13 years old.
“Throughout the conversation, Marcial-Castro entices [the victim] to send several nude images …” the complaint read, further stating that HSI “observed several images” of the victim.
On May 8, HSI conducted a forensic interview with the victim who identified the Snapchat username as a person she knew as “Emilio.”
HSI showed her a photo of Marcial-Castro’s driver’s license and identified him as the person in their Snapchat conversation.
She then told HSI that Marcial-Castro would ask her to take nude images on several occasions and would do so.
The victim also acknowledged that the pictures saved in the Snapchat conversation were of herself.
On June 5, HSI interviewed Marcial-Castro at his residence in Edinburg who admitted to being the person behind the redacted Snapchat username and that he’s known by his middle name, Emilio.
He then invoked his right to remain silent.
HSI seized Marcial-Castro’s iPhone when they sent two test messages from the victim’s Snapchat account to his.
Investigators observed the two Snapchat messages appear in the notification center on Marcial-Castro’s locked iPhone.
Marcial-Castro is set to appear before U.S. Magistrate Judge Nadia S. Medrano for his arraignment in early July.
