A 19-year-old man is arrested for allegedly blackmailing young girls into posing for nude photographs, reported El Diario Friday.
The capture of “Carlos Ortega,” whose real name is Jorge Enrique Perez Ayala, was the result of a four month investigation conducted by police in the capital city of the North Santander department, Cucuta.
The investigation began four months ago when a grandmother discovered her 12-year-old granddaughter in front of the computer displaying her private parts to a web camera. When confronted, the little girl told her grandmother that a young man had sent her a video chat invitation. He apparently forced the girl to stay in contact with him by threatening to share her videos on social networking sites.
Ayala allegedly contacted and blackmailed a number of minors in different Colombian departments through social networking sites.
Police caught Ayala by identifying his IP address, and then tracing it back to the source server in Cucuta.
The 19-year-old was detained at the Modelo prison in Cucuta, even though they did not immediately find evidence of child pornography and extortion. Police did seize a laptop, two phones, an iPod and three memory devices, in order to fully establish the identity of the suspect.
According to police, only two victims have spoken out against Alaya. Police allegedly have information of 10 other possible victims in Pereira. The alleged child pornographer apparently had more than 600 contacts on his social networking sites.