EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) – Police in Chihuahua, Mexico, are looking for more possible victims of a man who allegedly produced child pornography in his home and raffled it off using social media apps.
Jaime Avelino N., also known as Hugo Martinez, was arraigned this Friday in Chihuahua City on three counts of human trafficking, production, storage and distribution of child pornography.
He was arrested last Tuesday after an 18-month investigation that began when one of his alleged victims approached police. So far, he’s been linked to the sexually explicit visual exploitation of three minors – boys ages 8 to 16 – but Attorney General Cesar Augusto Peniche said he suspects there are more victims
“This is an investigation in which we have invested a lot of time, a lot of care […] we have found a lot of material that this person produced and stored. Our cyber police unit is tracing the accounts he may have shared the material with,” Peniche said in a teleconference.
Police are in possession of several cameras and mobile phones where the alleged sexually explicit images were stored.
The AG described the contents as “photos and video recordings” which were shared through Facebook apps using his alias. “It began with one victim, we have since identified two others, but the most important thing now is to review the videos and images to find more victims,” he said.
Avelino faces up to 90 years in prison if convicted of all three counts of human trafficking.
Mexican news media reports this week stated that Avelino may have shared some of the material with government officials or police officers over the past six years, which is how long he allegedly was involved in the production of child porn. However, Peniche said so far there’s no evidence to that effect.
Carlos Huerta, a spokesman for the AG’s Office, said child pornography cases are rare in the state of Chihuahua. “This is very atypical. It’s an isolated case,” he said.
