ODESSA, Texas — Twenty-one-year-old Hugo Iram Cardona Jr. from Odessa has pleaded guilty in a federal court in El Paso to three counts of cyberstalking, according to the United States Department of Justice.
According to court documents, Cardona used a two-factor authentication (2FA) scheme to gain access to numerous females’ social media accounts to steal photographs and videos.
Then, Cardona would contact the females using social media accounts on an interactive computer service (Instagram and Snapchat) and demand that they “apologize”, or he would publicly release the content.
He would also demand his victims to video chat with him while engaging in sexually explicit conduct, court documents show.
It has been reported by the FBI and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) that at least 15 victims were located in El Paso, Colorado and Arizona. The investigation revealed that the victims were contacted by Cardona from a variety of Instagram accounts.
The victims were also contacted from multiple TextNow numbers.
All Instagram, Snapchat and TextNow accounts have all been traced back to Cardona.
Cardona’s offenses occurred from Aug. 15, 2020 to about June 1, 2023.
Cardona is scheduled to be sentenced on June 3 and will face up to 10 years in prison for each count.
Investigating agencies are seeking help from anyone who was victimized by Cardona.
If you or someone you know has been in contact with Cardona Jr. on Snapchat, Instagram or TextNow, between 2020 and 2023, please complete this victim questionnaire.
