McAllen man convicted of blackmailing girls into sharing nude photos on Instagram

McALLEN, Texas (ValleyCentral) — A McAllen man will spend nearly two decades in federal prison for blackmailing young girls into sending him nude photos online.

Israel Ruiz, 23, has been sentenced to 210 months in prison for attempting to coerce minors online, the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced Thursday.

The investigation into Ruiz began on October 15, 2020, when the FBI’s San Antonio office received a tip from the Denver office about child sexual exploitation online.

FBI Denver spoke to a 9-year-old girl who had made child pornography for an adult. When they searched her phone, they identified another suspect, identified as Ruiz, who had received the child pornography.

Authorities obtained search warrants for Ruiz’s Instagram accounts, which showed conversations between him and a second young girl. A conversation log included with the complaint showed Ruiz telling the girl he would share explicit photos of her online if she didn’t do what he said.

In a message, Ruiz told her, “If you block me or delete me or delete the chat, I will post it,” the complaint alleges.

The girl’s comments show she begged Ruiz not to share the photos, to which he responded, “Then do as I say, slave.”

The complaint contains chat logs with at least three other girls, in which Ruiz asks for explicit content.

On March 10, 2021, the FBI conducted surveillance on Ruiz, where he was seen leaving his residence. Five days later, agents executed a search warrant and learned that he no longer lived there and was now living with his mother.

Agents called his mother, who signed a search form for the entire residence. Ruiz told investigators he had an iPhone, an iPad and an old Android. The FBI referred to the Android as the “target device,” adding that Ruiz “took steps to disable and hide the device” when he learned they had contacted his brother.

“Ruiz broke the screen of the Android device, hid the phone in a large bag of dog food in the garage, and removed the battery by hiding it behind a bed frame on the other side of the garage,” the complaint said.

His brother told investigators he wouldn’t let anyone near his Android phone.

During sentencing, U.S. District Judge Randy Crane noted that Ruiz poses a danger to the community. Following his prison sentence, Ruiz will be on supervised release for five years, with conditions limiting his access to children and the internet.

Ruiz will also have to register as a sex offender.