A Hudson County man was charged with producing child pornography after authorities said he used a messaging platform to connect with a teenager and send him sexually explicit videos, US Attorney Philip R. Sellinger announced Wednesday.
Julio Albery Nunez, 27, of West New York was charged with one count of sexual exploitation of a minor and one count of possession of child pornography.
He was arrested on Monday and remains in custody after a detention hearing Tuesday in Newark federal court.
Authorities said they began investigating Nunez’s alleged involvement with child pornography on various dark-web and online platforms in December 2022. He most recently posed as a teenage girl on a messaging platform to contact a male minor between the age of 15 and 16 years old, officials alleged.
Nunez sent videos through online chats to the male teenager of women engaged in sexual acts and requested and received sexually explicit videos of the alleged victim in return, according to the federal complaint.
Nunez allegedly paid for the videos using a mobile payment service as well, the complaint says.
Investigators searched Nunez home on May 20, seizing two cellphones, a laptop and external hard drive, according to the federal complaint filed against him.
Nunez admitted to investigators during an interview the day of the search that he distributed child pornographic material on various online and dark-web platforms under a pseudonym, the complaint said.
A federal public defender for Nunez did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday. – nj.com/Tribune News Service