MN Man Sentenced For 'Sextortion' Of More Than 60 Girls

ST. PAUL, MN — A Winona man has been sentenced to 27 years in prison followed by 20 years of supervised release in an online "sextortion" scheme that victimized more than 60 minor girls across the country and abroad, announced Acting U.S. Attorney Lisa D. Kirkpatrick.

Valentin Silva Quintana, 31, was sentenced on Feb. 5 in U.S. District Court before Judge Jerry W. Blackwell after pleading guilty to producing, distributing, and possessing child pornography.

Between April 2022 and June 2023, Quintana used Snapchat and Instagram to threaten, manipulate, and exploit more than 60 young girls—mostly between the ages of 9 and 12—across Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Texas, New Zealand, and other locations, authorities said.

Quintana knew that most of the girls were between 9 and 12 years of age, according to prosecutors. He used fake identities and lied about his age in communications with the girls, often posing as a minor girl himself.

Quintana also used images and videos of youthful appearing girls to make his communications with other victims more believable.

Quintana used a wide range of tactics to coerce his victims, sometimes by convincing young girls that he was their friend or romantic partner, or by offering them money, authorities said.

Most frequently, he convinced young girls to send him a sexual photo or video or covertly recorded them engaging in sexually explicit conduct and then threatened to send the first image to their friends and family unless the girls produced ever more graphic sexual images and videos for him, according to prosecutors.

He continued this type of sextortion even as his victims wept and begged him to stop, authorities said.

The case was investigated by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, Homeland Security Investigations, and the Winona County Sheriff’s Office. Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael McBride prosecuted.