Eagle Pass Man Sentenced to 30 Years in Federal Prison for Production of Child Pornography

DEL RIO, Texas - An Eagle Pass man was sentenced in a federal court in Del Rio to 30 years in prison for production of child pornography, announced U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Texas, Justin R. Simmons.

According to court documents, on April 17, 2025, Eagle Pass Police Department (EPPD) responded to an incident involving a recording device found in a store dressing room. EPPD identified Reginaldo Gonzalez Jr., 21, as the perpetrator. Gonzalez admitted to placing the recording device in the dressing room to record women while they were undressed. Additionally, Gonzalez admitted that he had child sexual abuse material (CSAM) on his cell phone.

EPPD contacted Homeland Security Investigations agents the following day. HSI conducted a records check on the National Center for Missing Children (NCMEC) and the Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) database for the phone number belonging to Gonzalez. Results revealed that there were three CyberTipline reports associated with the phone number.

Over the course of the investigation, HSI agents learned that Gonzalez was employed as a pharmacy tech at the store where the recording device was found, and that after his shift on April 17, he went to the fitting room, found a hole in the ceiling, and recorded people changing in the fitting room. He further explained that he recorded additional family members secretly in the bathroom using his cell phone, specifically, a prepubescent minor family member. One video found on Gonzalez's phone, depicting the nude minor victim, is 24 minutes and 37 seconds long and was saved in a file on Dec. 26, 2024.

During the investigation, HSI discovered numerous photos and videos of child pornography saved on the Defendant's device, including an image that depicted a class roster with student ID's along with several screenshots of school emails. There was a folder labeled "girls" that contained 31 folders with a total of 197 items, which were categorized and identified to belong to several high school students. The login information for 144 Snapchat accounts belonging to several students was saved into the device. Defendant also admitted to having hacked accounts belonging to the students to access their personal photographs and then attempted to anonymously extort them to create CSAM.

Gonzalez was arrested on April 19, 2025, and has remained in federal custody since. On May 14, 2025, he was indicted on one count of production of child pornography, to which he pleaded guilty on Sept. 29, 2025. U.S. District Judge Ernest Gonzalez presided over the case.

HSI investigated the case with assistance from EPPD.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Nallely Duarte prosecuted the case.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys' Offices and CEOS, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit Justice.gov/PSC.

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