A Navy petty officer faces federal charges after he allegedly sextorted children into making pornography and blackmailed one of them into cutting his pedophile moniker into her skin, according to federal court documents.
Navy Petty Officer 3rd Class Rumaldo Valdez, 22, aka “Duck,” was charged in a 12-page criminal complaint filed May 16.
The complaint details graphic videos depicting young girls being raped, tortured and forced into sexual acts and self-harm. Valdez was allegedly part of “a group loosely identified with an ideological extremist group” preying on children online.
Valdez was assigned to Naval Computer and Telecommunications Area Master Station Pacific, a U.S. Department of Defense installation in Wahiawa.
He is “interested in coding and computer science,” according to a motion to detain Valdez without bail filed Tuesday. Valdez allegedly edited and created online contraband for pedophiles.
The criminal complaint documents files, videos and images found on Valdez’s devices that depict mostly girls and at least one boy, some as young as 1 year old. Other victims ranged in age from 4 to 12 years old.
Valdez made his initial appearance in federal court Tuesday. His detention hearing is set for 10 :30 a.m. Friday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Barry M. Kurren.
In 2024 the Federal Bureau of Investigation received a tip about a group using the server of an online digital community to “extort minors into creating self-harm material and child pornography.”
Valdez allegedly sent victims links to malicious files that, if clicked on, would install malware on their computers that the server members could then use to accomplish blackmail.
Intelligence gathered by the FBI alleges Valdez, operating online as “Duck,” coerced a minor female, about 14 to 16 years old, into recording a masturbation video.
Valdez allegedly used that footage to blackmail the girl into recording and sharing a cutting video in which she carved “Duck ” into the skin on her arm, according to federal court records.
He allegedly promoted the video online.
“In my experience investigating the Offending Server and similar online groups, I know that participants in such groups often collect victim ‘fan signs’ (media ) as trophies from their online extortions and championing their aliases,” read an affidavit from an FBI agent.
Federal agents documented an online conversation Valdez allegedly had with another pedophile where Valdez was lauded for instantly supplying child pornography on demand.
The user told Valdez, “You probably watch it on your free time.”
“Oh yeah, I do it all the time. I get bored. Normal porn won’t do it for me anymore,” Valdez allegedly replied.
In other online dialogues allegedly captured by law enforcement, Valdez described to other users how he blackmailed minor children and their guardians.
Valdez faces one count of knowingly possessing a visual depiction of a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct, with said visual depiction having traveled in or affected interstate or foreign commerce.
Valdez was also charged with knowingly possessing any material containing child pornography, while in the special maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the U.S. or U.S. government land, and knowingly mailing, transporting or shipping child pornography, using any means or facility of interstate or foreign commerce, or in or affecting interstate or foreign commerce.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan D. Slack is prosecuting the case.
In March 2024, federal agents obtained the computer-user profile for Valdez from the Navy’s government-owned server documenting his internet activity.
A review of Valdez’s profile allegedly found that between October 2023 and February 2024, while “using a Navy computer and network, and his Navy-issued computer-user profile,” Valdez accessed the online community he used to access and spread child pornography about 10, 000 times.
Investigators also found internet searches related to hacking, remote-access tools, malware, including commands to remove all files and directories and to delete a registry “through a single command.”
On May 31, FBI agents searched Valdez and his residence at NCTAMS, Pacific in Wahiawa.
They seized an operating-system drive housed within a desktop-computer tower on Valdez’s desk, a SanDisk solid-state drive on the same desk, a Maxtor solid-state drive extracted from the desktop-computer tower, and an iPhone 14.
Valdez enlisted in the Navy on June 22, 2021 ; began training at Great Lakes, Ill., in December 2021 ; completed training in Pensacola, Fla., between June and August 2022 ; and was permanently assigned to NCTAMS starting Aug. 24, 2023, according to federal court records.
In 2021, law enforcement received CyberTips from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children about “Duck ” and others who were “producing and sharing child sexual abuse” material.
NCTAMS Pacific assures “command and control and provides vital command, control, communications, computers, and intelligence warfighting support to naval, joint, agency, and coalition forces afloat and ashore in the Pacific and Indian Ocean areas of operation.”
The roughly 700-person-strong command is mostly at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam’s Wahiawa Annex.
When asked whether the federal investigation involves other Navy personnel, U.S. Department of Justice officials declined comment.
Sextortion, a crime not currently defined by federal law, but aggressively investigated and prosecuted with existing laws, is on the rise in Hawaii and across the country.
In 2023 the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children’s Cyber Tipline received 186, 819 reports of online enticement, the category that includes sextortion.
Between 2021 and 2023 the number of online enticement reports increased by 323 %, according to the center.
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