Cops: Hialeah man posed as underage girl, extorted people over explicit photos, videos

Hialeah police say high-school student Bryan Perez in May pretended to be an underage girl online, convinced a 20-year-old man to send a picture of his penis and then meet up at a park to have sex.

But Perez wasn’t planning to turn in the man to cops. Instead, investigators say, Perez called the man a “pedophile” and demanded money to keep quiet. His demand, Perez later told cops: just $20.

When the man later texted him and accused him of extortion, Perez replied: “Who r u going to call? The cops? Dont you think thats a bad idea. Because what you did illegal too. Don’t you think?” according to a police report.

The victim did call cops, and Hialeah police detectives on Monday arrested Perez, charging him with extortion, among other felonies. They uncovered what they say was Perez’s years-long pattern of shaking down adults and minors over explicit photos and videos. So far, the 18-year-old has been charged in three cases, and investigators believe there may be many more victims. He is believed to have used Snapchat to pose as an underage girl.

According to an arrest report, the Hialeah teen confessed “he received payments from his victims via Venmo and CashApp ... he had received over $1,000 in extortion money. He described receiving transactions as large as $100 to $200 per victim.”

As far back as November 2020, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children had gotten a tip about Perez blackmailing and “catfishing” people over explicit photos, according to an arrest report. The tip provided Perez’s cellphone number, although it’s unclear whether any police agencies opened a probe at that time.

Perez, who was 17 and in high school during the “catfish” episode at Hialeah’s McDonald Park in May, was booked into jail as an adult and has since posted bail. His arrest report lists him as a student, although it was unclear what school he attended.

His cellphone was disconnected on Tuesday, and he could not be reached for comment. Court records do not yet list an attorney.

In a second case by Hialeah police, Perez was charged with possessing child porn after he sent an illegal video to someone on Instagram in October 2020, according to an arrest report. He admitted to sending the sexually explicit video featuring a 7-year-old girl, the report said.

In another case, Perez is accused of posing as a girl, then getting a 15-year-old boy to send him nude photos. He then “threatened to report” the photos if he did not pay a ransom, according to a Miami-Dade police arrest report.

The arrest was made by Hialeah Detective George Otero, who earlier this year also arrested a woman who was accused of sharing child porn, and was nabbed in part because of images of her nails she posted on social media.

In Perez’s case, Otero listed several other suspected crimes:

▪ In September 2020, Perez got $1,000 from a victim on the money-transfer app Venmo. In the transaction notes section, the victim wrote “To stop sharing my pics and phone number.”

▪ In October 2020, he also got $80 from a victim, who also wrote on the Venmo transaction record: “I really need the money it’s either not pay or whoever is black mailing me my pics around.”

▪ In December 2020, Perez got $200 from a victim, but wrote back to the victim on Venmo that he was going to share videos because “you blocked me.”

Perez has not been charged in those cases yet.