A 25-year-old member of the Texas National Guard has been sentenced to 10 years in federal prison for possessing child pornography, capping an investigation that began with a flagged Google account in Laredo and ended with agents combing through more than 1,200 illegal images and videos on his phone. Estin Cole West was stationed at a military installation in Del Rio at the time federal agents came to interview him and search his device.
The case traces back to November 2023, when a Google account was flagged for saving 81 videos and images of suspected child sexual abuse material while the account's user was living in Laredo, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. Homeland Security Investigations confirmed that West owned the Google account in question, along with the associated IP address and two email addresses, according to the same release cited by U.S. Attorney WDTX in a post marking the sentencing. By the time agents caught up with him, West was employed by the Texas National Guard and had recently been stationed at the Del Rio installation, where HSI agents interviewed him and found the illicit files.
Forensic Search Uncovers More Than 1,200 Files
A forensic analysis of West's mobile phone turned up 512 images and 726 videos depicting child pornography, the Justice Department said, including material showing bestiality and prepubescent children that had been stored in a locked folder and on Telegram. Assistant U.S. Attorney Nallely Duarte prosecuted the case, per the department's account of the investigation.
Federal court records reviewed by PacerMonitor show West was arrested on December 6, 2024, and charged with possessing and accessing prepubescent child pornography under 18 U.S.C. § 2252A(a)(5)(B). He pleaded guilty on March 24, 2025, in proceedings before U.S. Magistrate Judge Joseph A. Cordova in Del Rio federal court. Under the statute, possessing material depicting prepubescent minors or children under 12 carries a statutory maximum of up to 20 years in federal prison, a penalty range Congress expanded under the Child Protection Act of 2012, according to a report from EveryCRSReport.com.
Not the First Guardsman Prosecuted in Del Rio
West's case is not an isolated one within the Texas National Guard's ranks near the border. In December 2023, another active Guard member, 23-year-old Jesus Gaytan III of Fort Worth, was sentenced in the same Del Rio federal court to six years in prison after a 2021 traffic stop near Del Rio uncovered illicit materials involving a minor, the Justice Department said. And in 2019, non-active Texas Army National Guard member Nereo Salinas received federal prison time in a Western District of Texas case for child enticement and obscenity after attempting to meet a minor at Lackland Air Force Base, using privileged access to military facilities in the process, according to the department's earlier account.
The Western District of Texas has also kept up a steady pace of CSAM prosecutions beyond military defendants. In August, the U.S. Attorney's Office secured a 10-year sentence in Del Rio federal court against Jefferson Chancay-Sanchez for possessing CSAM hidden inside a mobile app, matching the sentence handed down against West. The office covers prosecutions across West and South Texas.
Part of a Nationwide Enforcement Push
West's prosecution falls under Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide Department of Justice initiative launched in May 2006 that coordinates federal, state, and local law enforcement across all 94 U.S. Attorneys' Offices to combat online child exploitation, co-led with the DOJ's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section. The hashtag accompanied the U.S. Attorney's announcement of West's sentence.
Regional task forces in South Texas routinely rely on internet service provider flags and forensic IP tracing to detect illicit file-sharing on encrypted platforms like Telegram, a pattern Hoodline has previously reported in a separate Laredo-originated case involving a former teacher. Forensic analysis of personal devices continues to serve as the primary evidentiary foundation once cases reach federal court in the Del Rio division, which has handled a string of similar prosecutions in recent years, including the 30-year sentence handed to a Del Rio man for production of child pornography and a 50-year sentence imposed on a San Angelo man for production and distribution of the material.
Open questions remain about West's case, including his official military status and duty assignment at the time of his arrest, whether Texas National Guard administrative discharge proceedings ran alongside the federal case, and whether his device had ever connected to secure military networks. None of those details have been addressed in the available court or Justice Department records.
