Man Who Exploited Children And Spread Child Pornography Arrested In Dubuque

According to Dubuque police and a report from the Telegraph Herald, a man, now living in Texas, was arrested Saturday (12/10) on 23 separate charges; which included child pornography, sexual exploitation of a minor, and identity theft.

44 year-old Gian H. Sanagustin of Cedar Park, Texas, was arrested at 2:30pm Saturday at Dubuque Law Enforcement Center on warrants charging 10 counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, 10 counts of possession of a depiction of a minor in a sex act and three counts of identity theft under $1,500.

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Court documents show that Google officials reported to the National Center of Missing and Exploited Children on June 12^th of 2019, that child pornography was being uploaded through two email addresses and two cellphone numbers associated with Gian Sanagustin. That associated IP address was then traced back to a Dubuque hotel.

According to court documents, a search warrant across Sanagustin’s devices revealed images and videos of nude males believed to be under the age of 18 engaging in sexual acts. In addition, evidence of uploaded sexually explicit videos to Tumblr were found via emails that date back to 2017, as well as more pictures and videos linked with a social media account of Sanagustin. Reports show investigators found 126 message threads that referenced sending child pornography. This dissemination of illegal properties was done through committing identity theft by utilizing other persons’ information for services which included a Mediacom account.

Authorities executed a search warrant on May 15^th of 2020, at Sanagustin’s residence, 2524 Jackson Street. He refused to comply with officers and forced entry was made. Sanagustin was found on his couch laying on top of his cellphone, which had been placed in to factory reset mode. Sanagustin then confirmed he operated two Google accounts associated with the investigation. Documents show that shortly after the search warrant was executed, the suspect moved to an unknown location. An arrest warrant for Sanagustin was issued on Oct. 31.