A local man was arrested for attempting to coerce two children into sending him naked and sexually explicit pictures and then threatening to share the photos if they stopped, the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced Friday.
Joseph Daniel Saucedo, of Vista, allegedly posed as a teenage girl through the messaging app KIK using the name “Amy” and sent the 11-year old boy naked pictures of young girls. The 25-year old also asked the victim to contact an adult male friend of “Amy” and threatened to expose the boy online if he did not comply.
The victim was then contacted by the male friend of the suspect multiple times using FaceTime. He also received sexually explicit images of that man in messages.
In January, 2016, Saucedo contacted the victim again as “Amy” and threatened to release an inappropriate video online.
After an investigation into Saucedo’s online accounts that police had linked to child pornography, they also found evidence linking him to a similar case in Florida.
Saucedo had posed as a modeling agent with a 16-year old girl online and made similar demands, according the indictment.
"Getting new photographs of child pornography is a real cache thing. It is something that these individuals pride themselves in,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Alexandra Foster.
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According to the federal court complaint, 130 images and 66 videos were found on Saucedo's KIK account. Most of them contained child pornography.
"Unfortunately in this day and age, when we can mask ourselves in social media there are predators out there that do exactly that,” Foster said.
“As parents we need to be aggressively monitor what our children are doing online, and as prosecutors, we will aggressively go after predators who are coercing, extorting and harming our kids,” said U.S. Attorney Laura Duffy.
Saucedo was charged with production, attempted production and receipt of photographs of minors.
If convicted on all charges, he could face up to 25 years in prison.
Potential victims are asked to call Polly Montano, Victim-Witness Coordinator at (619)546-8921, Duffy stated.
