MN Sex Criminal Used Instagram, SnapChat To Reach 60 Girls: Feds

ST. PAUL, MN — A Winona man has pleaded guilty to an online sextortion scheme that victimized more than 60 minor girls across the country and abroad, announced U.S. Attorney Andrew M. Luger.

Valentin Silva Quintana, 30, pleaded guilty last week to one count of production of child pornography, one count of distribution of child pornography, and one count of possession of child pornography.

Between April 2022 and June 2023, Quintana used Snapchat and Instagram to threaten, sexually manipulate, and exploit more than 60 young girls primarily between 9 and 12 years old in Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Texas, New Zealand and elsewhere, according to prosecutors.

Quintana knew that most of the girls were between 9 and 12 years of age, authorites said. He used fake identities and lied about his age in communications with the girls, posing as a minor girl himself, according to investigators.

Quintana also used images and videos of young girls to make his communications with other victims more believable, authorities said.

Quintana convinced young girls that he was their friend or romantic partner and sometimes offered them money, according to prosecutors.

But "most frequently," Quintana convinced young girls to send him a sexual photo or video or covertly recorded them engaging in sexually explicit conduct and then threatened to send the first image to their friends and family unless the girls produced ever more graphic sexual images and videos for him, authorities said.

Quintana "continued this type of sextortion even as his victims wept and begged him to stop," according to federal prosecutors.

The case against Quintana was the result of an investigation conducted by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, Homeland Security Investigations, and the Winona County Sheriff’s Office.