'I knew this was going to catch up to me': Harlingen man with over 400 child porn, bestiality charges sentenced

HARLINGEN, Texas (ValleyCentral) — A Harlingen man who was facing more than 400 child pornography and bestiality charges pleaded guilty and was sentenced Thursday.

Madian Levi Salinas was sentenced to 20 years in state prison after pleading guilty to four counts of possession of child pornography.

This came after Salinas asked to be re-arraigned, and pleaded guilty to the four counts. At the time, he was facing 408 counts of possession of child pornography and three counts of bestiality by observation, records show. Prosecutors agreed to dismiss the remaining charges.

Investigation

On Dec. 4, 2020, authorities received a referral from Google regarding an account, which was referred to Homeland Security Investigations, a police report stated.

On March 15, 2021, HSI executed a search warrant on the account, which showed 428 files of child pornography. According to the report, 357 of the files were "visually unique." The account also had numerous selfie images that showed Salinas.

Investigators then learned that an arrest warrant had been served on Salinas for possession of marijuana, and he was being held at the Cameron County Jail in Olmito.

On Feb. 14, 2023, HSI agents and a CCDA investigator interviewed Salinas in the 445th district court jury room, while he was incarcerated for a possession of a controlled substance charge. Agents spoke with Salinas, and asked him if he remembered living at the 2200 block of New Combes Highway in Harlingen. He replied, yes. Agents then told Salinas the report showed that a family member had been paying for the internet there, where Salinas was using the internet to download the child porn to his Google Drive. He told agents "that makes sense," the report stated.

Salinas told the agents he used to look up child pornography on the internet from 2012 to 2019, while living in Uvalde, including using the dark web. At that point, Salinas stated, "I knew this was going to catch up to me."

On Feb. 14, 2023, the Cameron County District Attorney's Office served Salinas with the new arrest warrants while he was in custody at the Cameron County Jail. He was arraigned and his bond was set at $40,000.

Sentence

Salinas received sentences of five years for each of the four counts, which will run consecutively. He was also required to register as a sex offender.

“The supply of child sexual abuse material (child porn) exists solely because of demand," said Cameron County District Attorney Luis V. Saenz. "Consumers of this disgusting material are directly responsible for motivating the content creators that sexually violate children when/during the creation of child sexual abuse material. I am happy Judge Garcia followed our plea agreement and sentenced Salinas accordingly."