Easton resident sentenced to federal prison for coercing minors to engage in illegal sexual activity
BALTIMORE, Md. – An Easton resident has been sentenced to nearly two decades in federal prison for coercion and enticement of a minor to engage in illegal sexual activity.
34-year-old Angel Gabriel Arroyo-Angelino, a Mexican citizen living in Easton, was sentenced on Monday to 18 years in federal prison, followed by lifetime supervised release, after admitting that he pretended to be a teenage boy on social media accounts in order to induce minor females to produce and send to him sexually explicit images and videos of themselves.
According to his guilty plea, from December 24, 2017, through September 11, 2018, Arroyo used the alias “Elias Garcia” to create a social media account, which he then used to persuade, induce, and coerce four minor victims to produce and send him sexually explicit images and videos of themselves. Arroyo reportedly initiated contact with each of the minor victims on social media and told them that he was 16-years-olds, using a profile picture depicting a teenage boy to manipulate the minors he met online. He complimented the minors, sent them images of flowers and money, and made other romantic overtures to the minor victims, knowing that the victims were underage minors. Despite this, Arroyo persuaded the victims to send him nude images, often sending them cash in the mail if they sent the sexually explicit images and videos he requested.
The social media platform became aware of Arroyo’s misconduct in May of 2018 and terminated his Elias Garcia account. The platform also submitted a Cybertip to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, detailing a sexually explicit online conversation that Arroyo had with one of the victims, a 15-year-old female, which culminated in the minor sending Arroyo a sexually explicit video of herself.
After receiving the Cybertip, Easton Police investigators obtained a series of search warrants for online and phone accounts associated with the “Elias Garcia” persona, and after gathering additional information, obtained a search warrant to search Arroyo’s residence on September 11, 2018. While executing the search warrant, investigators reportedly discovered a white envelope in Arroyo’s bedroom that contained a $50 bill. The envelope was addressed to an individual later identified as a 12-year-old female whose name was handwritten in the area where “sender” information is typically placed. It was then discovered that Arroyo had been engaging in communications with the 12-year-old through social media, offering her money in exchange for sexually explicit photos.
In addition to the white envelope, investigators also found a black cell phone hidden in Arroyo’s bedroom, which was found to contain sexually explicit images of several of the minor victims, as well as evidence linking Arroyo to the “Elias Garcia” communications and to another alias “Emiel Quiross” that Arroyo had used to create an additional social media account after the platform shut down his previous account. It was discovered at this point that Arroyo had used the “Emiel Quiross” account to coerce and entice two additional minor victims to produce and send him sexually explicit images of themselves. He employed a similar pattern with these two victims, pretending to be a 16-year-old boy and offering the minor females cash in exchange for sending him close-up images of the victims’ genitals.
After voluntarily waiving his Miranda rights, Arroyo agreed to speak with investigators on September 11, 2018, during which he used another alias when identifying himself to investigators and did not provide his real name. Arroyo admitted that the cell phone and white envelope found in his bedroom belonged to him but claimed that he was mailing the money to his ex-girlfriend. When questioned about the victim’s name that was handwritten on the envelope, Arroyo reportedly denied knowing the victim and claimed that he made up the name of a female to write on the envelope so that his ex-girlfriend’s new boyfriend would not become suspicious regarding the source of the money she received in the envelope.
On his release from prison, the judge ordered that Arroyo will be required to register as a see offender in the place where he resides, where he is an employee, and where he is a student.
