Valley Choir Teacher Sentenced on Child Pornography Charges

A Rio Grande Valley high school choir teacher has been sentenced to federal prison after receiving child pornography from another valley resident, according to U.S. Attorney Alamdar Hamdani.

Orlando Diaz-Ramirez, 33, a Mexican citizen, pleaded guilty on Sept. 8, 2023, and admitted to receiving 300 child pornography videos from Israel Flores, 22, of Los Fresnos, according to Hamdani.

Diaz and Flores were sentenced to eight years in federal prison. Because Diaz is not a U.S. citizen, he is expected to be deported after serving his sentence.

Hamdani said that during the hearing, the court heard that Diaz had an additional eight gigabytes of child pornography in his Dropbox account and that he was employed as a choir teacher at a local middle school.

Diaz and Flores must pay $45,000 each to known victims. They must also register as sex offenders.

Hamdani said that after their prison sentences, the two men will serve five years of supervised release, during which time they will have to comply with numerous requirements aimed at restricting their access to children and the internet.

“With today’s sentencing, HSI has removed a dangerous child predator from the community,” said Mark Lippa, Assistant Special Agent in Charge of HSI RGV. “Preventing and investigating crimes against children is a top priority for HSI. We will continue to dedicate law enforcement resources to identify and bring to justice child predators who traumatize and victimize children.”

Authorities conducted an investigation to identify an individual who uploaded child pornography to a Dropbox account in October 2020. According to Hamdani, they were able to link the IP address to Diaz's residence in Donna.

Authorities executed a federal search warrant in April 2021 at the Donna residence.

Hamdani said Diaz admitted to downloading child pornography through Kik and putting it on his Dropbox. He also said he received a USB drive containing child pornography from Flores.

Authorities contacted Flores at his home in Los Fresnos. He admitted to providing the USB drive to Diaz, according to Hamdani.

Flores said he used his Kik account to access accounts at Mega, a cloud-based file storage and hosting service, to obtain child pornography; he then downloaded the material onto the USB drive, according to Hamdani.

Hamdani said the USB drive contained 300 videos of child pornography, including prepubescent minors under the age of 12 engaging in sexual acts with adults.

Diaz and Flores will remain in custody pending transfer to a U.S. Bureau of Prisons facility.