McAllen man sentenced for blackmailing girls into sharing nudes on Instagram

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

Israel Ruiz, 23, was 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 Oct. 15, 2020, when the FBI San Antonio Office received a lead from the office in Denver regarding sexual exploitation of children online.

FBI Denver spoke with a 9-year-old girl who had created child porn for an adult. When searching her phone, they identified an additional suspect, identified as Ruiz, as having received the child porn.

Authorities obtained search warrants for Instagram accounts belonging to Ruiz, which showed conversations between him and a second young girl. A conversation log included in the complaint showed Ruiz telling the girl that he would share explicit photos of her online if she did not do as he said.

In one message, Ruiz told her "if you block me or delete me or delete the chat I'll post it," the complaint shows.

The girl's replies show she was pleading with Ruiz to not share the photos, to which he responded "Then do as I say slave."

The complaint includes chat logs with at least three other girls, where Ruiz is seen asking for explicit content.

On March 10, 2021, the FBI conducted surveillance on Ruiz, where he was seen exiting his residence. Five days later, agents executed a search warrant and were informed that he was no longer living 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 "went through steps to disable and hide the device" once he learned that they had contacted his brother.

"Ruiz broke the screen of the Android device, hid the phone inside a large bag of dog food in the garage, and removed the battery hiding it behind a bedframe on the other side of the garage," the complaint stated.

His brother told investigators that he would not allow anyone near his Android phone.

During the sentencing, Chief U.S. District Judge Randy Crane noted the danger that Ruiz poses to the community. Following his prison sentence, Ruiz will have to serve five years of supervised release, with conditions that will restrict his access to children and the internet.