A Florida International University student was arrested after authorities said he sent lewd videos to a person who he believed was 15 and arranged to have the person come to his apartment before he discovered it was an investigator, records showed.
Jose Pablo Inostroza-Ibanez, 20, was arrested Sunday on charges including using a computer to seduce, solicit or lure a child to engage in sexual conduct, attempted lewd and lascivious assault on a child, electronic transmission harmful to minors, an arrest report said.
According to the report, on Aug. 28, an independent investigator who wasn’t working with law enforcement created an online persona representing himself as a 15-year-old.
The investigator was using Grindr when he was contacted by Inostroza-Ibanez, who was told he was communicating with a 15-year-old but continued anyway, the report said.
They started communicating on Snapchat and the communications became sexual in nature, before Inostroza-Ibanez sent two videos of him exposing himself, the report said.
The two discussed meeting in person, and Inostroza-Ibanez told the “teen” he could come to his apartment, the report said.
When the investigator arrived posing as the teen, Inostroza-Ibanez learned he hadn’t been communicating with a 15-year-old, the report said.
FIU Police responded and arrested Inostroza-Ibanez.
“Based upon the totality of the circumstances, including def’s knowledge of the purported juvenile’s age, the sexual nature of the communications, his transmission of sexually explicit videos, the arrangements for the purported juvenile to travel to his residence, his directions and assistance facilitating that travel, and the circumstances surrounding the planned meeting, probable case was developed for the applicable criminal charges,” the report said.
Inostroza-Ibanez was booked into jail and appeared before a judge on Tuesday, who appointed him a public defender and set his bond at $17,500.
NBC6 has reached out to FIU for a statement and was waiting to hear back.