Man sentenced after trying to meet 13-year-old at hotel in Pharr

PHARR, Texas (ValleyCentral) — A man was sentenced Thursday after trying to meet up with a 13-year-old at a Pharr hotel, records show.

Alejandro Moya was sentenced to 10 years in prison on a charge of coercion and enticement of a minor, federal records show.

On May 9, 2019, a special agent with Homeland Security Investigations was participating in an online investigation on the app "Whisper." During this investigation, the agent took on the persona of a 13-year-old girl, and created a post that said "Boys suck!! Ughhhh," a criminal complaint stated.

After creating the post, the agent received a sexually explicit response from a user named "Earth_Cat." The conversation ensued, in which the agent told the user he was 13 years old. The user continued sending explicit messages, and the conversation moved to the app "Kik," where he would message from the username "Alexm421," the complaint stated.

On Kik, the user, later identified as Moya," sent several unsolicited videos and pictures.

"Throughout the conversation, [the special agent] stated that he was a 13-year-old female multiple times, and the user acknowledged he understood he was communicating with a 13-year-old female child twice," the complaint stated.

Moya then told the agent he wanted to meet with her in person after she got out of school for the day. HSI agents secured a safe location, which was a hotel in Pharr, with little activity.

Approximately 30 minutes later, a truck arrived and Moya texted the agent that he was there. At this point he was taken into custody.

The agent texted Moya "??" and saw the message appear in the phone he was holding in his hand, which was consistent with the undercover account.

Moya was transported to the Pharr Police Department where he admitted to sending sexually explicit material, and driving to the hotel to meet with the girl to engage in sexual activity.

As part of his sentence, Moya was ordered to serve five years of supervised release and must make his computer and data storage available to his probation officer.