In undercover operation, Bay Point man charged with distributing child sexual abuse content

Jul. 17--OAKLAND -- A Bay Point man has been charged in federal court with distributing child porn online, after he allegedly shared videos of young children being sexually abused, and later admitted to investigators to sexual abuse of teen girls, prosecutors said.

Sergio Luiz Cruz-Esparza, 22, was charged Monday with a single count of child porn distribution, which carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. The charges stem from an investigation by Homeland Security Investigations, which started last February when authorities arrested a man in New York who allowed federal agents to use his social media account for an undercover operation.

According to a recently-unsealed criminal complaint, an undercover agent began chatting with Cruz-Esparza -- who had the username "mijoo" -- on an unnamed social media application. In the chats, Cruz-Esparza allegedly said he's been "meeting up with more teens lately," and that he was 21 years old.

"I thought you were into much younger," the undercover agent said.

"I am into younger but this the youngest I can can get into yk (you know)," Cruz-Esparza allegedly replied.

Authorities dug more into Cruz-Esparza's social media activity, and found he's been sharing child porn videos on Tumblr under the username, "shamelessoperatorprunepurse." This included several videos depicting girls younger than 10 being sexually abused, according to federal authorities.

Federal authorities interviewed Cruz-Esparza on July 9, after serving a search warrant at his Bay Point home. In the interview, he admitted to sharing videos of himself having "sexual encounters" with teen girls, an HSI special agent wrote in the complaint.

"Cruz-Esparza also stated that, since he had turned 18 years old, numerous minor females, at least one of whom resides in another state (according to CRUZ-Esparza), had sent him self-produced child pornography and that he had sent multiple minor females photos of his penis," HSI Special Agent Davis Mendelsohn wrote.

Cruz-Esparza had his first court appearance Wednesday, where he was advised of the charges and remanded to pretrial custody. His next court appearance will be Tuesday in front of U.S. Magistrate Judge Sallie Kim.

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