A 20-year-old man was arrested in Cayey on child sexual exploitation material, the Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) office reported. HSI identified the defendant as Jair Otniel Almenas Gómez, against whom a complaint was filed in the federal court in San Juan. According to the HSI affidavit, the illegal images were allegedly on the cellphone seized during a search of his residence on Wednesday, November 11.
The court document says Almenas Gómez admitted he had received the illegal material through an account on the social network Telegram and kept it on the phone, and that he was aware the images were child pornography. Asked to describe the age of the minors depicted in the links, videos and images he possessed and shared, he said they were as young as infants, the HSI complaint states.
Based on analysis of the images, investigators believe the victims range from infants to adolescents of 14. He also recorded sexually explicit videos of a minor and sent them to another person through Telegram, with whom he held conversations related to the sexual exploitation of minors, according to the complaint, which says the seized material included videos of minors being subjected to sexual abuse.
Almenas Gómez faces charges of production, distribution and possession of child pornography. Magistrate Giselle López Soler authorized his arrest. The electronic case file did not reflect whether he had made an initial appearance or whether a preliminary hearing had been scheduled.