Man pretended to be teenage girl to get underage victim to send him explicit videos, US federal government says

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, the U.S. Attorney announced Wednesday Philip R. Sellinger.

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 Monday and remains in custody following a detention hearing Tuesday in Newark federal court.

Authorities said they began investigating Nunez's alleged involvement in child pornography on various dark web and online platforms in December 2022. He recently posed as a teenage girl on a messaging platform to contact a minor aged 15 to 16 years old. officials said.

Nunez sent videos via online chats to the teen of women engaged in sexual acts and requested and received sexually explicit videos from the alleged victim in return, according to the federal complaint.

Nunez also allegedly paid for the videos using a mobile payment service, the complaint states.

Investigators searched Nunez's home on May 20, seizing two cell phones, a laptop and an external hard drive, according to the federal complaint filed against him.

Nunez admitted to investigators during an interview on the day of the search that he had distributed child pornography on various online platforms and on the dark web under an alias, according to the complaint.

A federal public defender for Nunez did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday. – News Service nj.com/Tribune