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A McAllen man was arrested last Thursday for his role in buying and selling child sex abuse material using various social media applications where he’d advertise.
Lee Roy Garcia, born in 1991, appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Nadia S. Medrano for his initial appearance Wednesday after being charged with possession and transportation of child sexual abuse material, or CSAM.
The investigation into Garcia began with the arrest of a man in New York named Shakeem Rankin for similar charges who was known as “mulaDussa” on messaging application KiK, according to the criminal complaint.
FBI agents in New York, following the seizure of Rankin’s electronic devices, subpoenaed additional KiK users one of which was a user named “SemperFiRoy,” later identified as Garcia, who had exchanged CSAM with Rankin in a group chat.
Sometime in May, FBI agents for San Antonio and McAllen received information from FBI agents in New York regarding Garcia and subpoenaed Google for additional information on him which included several emails and his phone number.
A staff operations specialist ran an open-web search for accounts associated with “SemperFiRoy” and a Wickr, Inc. account that includes sexually explicit slang in the username, which was associated with the KiK account.
According to the complaint, in or around 2021, Garcia purchased a link on Wickr for $35 that contained CSAM.
“From 2021-2022, Garcia continued to utilize Wickr, Tumblr and KiK to receive MEGA links, which contained CSAM,” the complaint said.
MEGA is a cloud storage and file hosting service offered by a company called MEGA Limited.
Between 2021 and 2022, Garcia received approximately $200 to $300 for distributing links.
Then, sometime around January 2023, Garcia created a new Wickr account to possess and distribute CSAM with the sexually explicit username.
He received about 10 CSAM links which he viewed and distributed, according to the complaint.
On or about June 9, agents conducting an interview with Garcia asked if he knew why he was at the McAllen FBI office to which he nodded his head in the affirmative and stated it was because of a MEGA link.
Garcia admitted that he knew the links he distributed contained CSAM but told the agents he had deleted all the CSAM related content on his cellular device.
“Garcia signed a consent to search form for both his cellular device and computer desktop and provided agents with passcodes,” the complaint said. “Agents conducted an initial evidence review, but were unable to recover CSAM on either device.”
On or around June 23, a further evidence review was conducted on Garcia’s cellular device which revealed 19 CSAM images that were recovered.
Several of the images depicted prepubescent children performing sexual acts on an adult or with each other, according to the complaint.
“The screenshots from the evidence review corroborated the timeline provided above and identified Garcia and his Wickr, Inc. and MEGA accounts,” the complaint said.
Garcia is scheduled to reappear before Medrano for his examination and detention hearing Wednesday afternoon.
