Winona man admits using social media to sexually blackmail dozens of girls at home and abroad

A Winona, Minnesota man admitted Thursday that he used social media apps to sexually blackmail dozens of girls across the country and abroad, many of them prepubescent.

Valentin Silva Quintana, 30, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to one count each of production, distribution and possession of child pornography in connection with a conspiracy that spanned 14 months through June 2023.

The agreement noted that Quintana faces a minimum sentence of 15 years and a maximum sentence of 70 years in prison under federal guidelines. However, federal judges have complete discretion in sentencing defendants and are not bound by guidelines. A sentencing date has not yet been set.

According to his guilty plea and other court documents:

Between April 2022 and June 2023, Quintana used social media apps such as Snapchat and Instagram to threaten, sexually manipulate, and exploit at least 65 girls, mostly between the ages of 9 and 15, in Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Texas, New Zealand, and elsewhere.

He knew their real ages and used false identities – many with female names such as “Queen Lee” – and lied to the girls about his age. He used pictures and videos to pose as girls and make his communications with his victims more believable.

Sometimes Quintana convinced girls that he was their boyfriend or partner, or he offered them money.

Most commonly, however, he persuaded girls to send him sexual photos or videos or secretly filmed them engaging in sexually explicit acts and then threatened to send the first image to their friends and relatives if they did not produce increasingly explicit sexual images and videos for him.

He then distributed some of these pornographic materials to others via the Internet.

Quintana “admits that some minor victims cried and begged him to stop, but he persisted with his plan,” his guilty plea states.

Prosecutors wrote in their closing argument that they believe “there are many more minor victims of (Quintana’s) scheme who have been identified to date… and who appear in images of child pornography stored in the defendant’s cloud computing account and cell phone. Efforts to identify them are ongoing.”