A Brooklyn man was arrested for producing child pornography and then uploading the sickening footage onto the dark web, officials said Friday.
Edixon Briceno Montilla, 28, was arrested Thursday and charged in Brooklyn Federal Court with sexual exploitation of a minor for the five videos, part of a series called “Hairdyeguy,” in which he performed sexual acts on a boy who was just 7 or 8 years old, prosecutors said.
Federal agents with Homeland Security raided Montilla’s home in Bath Beach on Thursday after identifying him as a man who performs oral sex on the victim in the “Hairdyeguy” videos, according to a criminal complaint.
At the apartment where Montilla lived with a 9-year-old boy and the child’s mother, the feds recovered a cell phone containing additional footage stored in a hidden folder, court records show.
Those videos included footage of a man having sex with the child with whom Montilla resided. The child later told investigators that the defendant sexually abused him at least once a week for years and recorded at least some of the abuse, the complaint reads.
Though the face of the man in the video was obscured, tattoos visible on his forearms matched Montilla’s ink, prosecutors said.
Montilla later admitted under questioning to being the man featured in both the “Hairdyeguy” videos and the footage recovered off the device found at his apartment, according to the complaint.
Montilla, who the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District identified as a Venezuelan national, was ordered held without bail at his arraignment. He faces a mandatory minimum of 15 years and a maximum of 30 years in prison if convicted, officials said.
“As alleged, Montilla preyed on minors who he had access to, abused them for his own sexual gratification, and filmed their victimization,” U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella said. “Prosecuting those who victimize children is a priority for the Department of Justice, this Office and our law enforcement partners.”