NEWARK, N.J. — A New Jersey man is charged with producing and possessing child exploitation and abuse material following an investigation led by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Newark.
Carlos Xavier Urbina-Gutierrez aka Luis Urbina-Gutierrez, 23, of Wharton, appeared Oct. 22 at the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey in Camden where he was charged by complaint with possessing and producing child pornography and enticing a minor to produce child pornography.
“HSI Newark is committed to protecting children from the threat of depraved individuals posing as their peers in digital environments with ill intent to victimize them,” said HSI Newark acting Special Agent in Charge Spiros Karabinas. “Every day we are in the fight against this abhorrent crime of online child sexual exploitation and abuse. Together with our law enforcement partners, we are determined to help our communities keep our children safe and hold offenders accountable for their heinous crimes.”
The Borough of Wharton Police Department and the Morris County Prosecutor’s Office assisted HSI Newark with the investigation leading to the charges and arrest.
According to the investigation, in 2023, Urbina-Gutierrez, posing as a high school student in Morris County. Urbina-Gutierrez used a fake online female persona on social media to communicate online with minor male victims who were students at the high school. On Dec. 25, 2023, Urbina-Gutierrez used these social media accounts to solicit one of the minor victims to engage in sexually explicit behavior while participating in a video call. Urbina-Gutierrez then surreptitiously recorded the video call and saved it to his phone. A forensic search of Urbina-Gutierrez’s cell phone revealed an approximately one-minute video of the video call with the victim.
Know2Protect is a national public awareness campaign from the Department of Homeland Security. K2P’s aim is to educate and empower children, teens, parents, trusted adults and policymakers to prevent, combat and report online child sexual exploitation and abuse. For more information, please visit our YouTube playlists at Know2Protect Campaign PSA Playlist and Know2Protect Digital Safety Series Playlist on the DHS main channel. Additional resources are available at know2protect.gov, Instagram, Facebook and X, formerly known as Twitter.
Follow us on X at @HSINewark to learn more about HSI’s global missions and operations.