LAS CRUCES, N.M. (KRQE) – A man is being held without bond for distributing child exploitive material spanning from 2022 through April 2023, according to the State of New Mexico Office of the Third Judicial District Attorney. 23-year-old Ryan Gallardo is accused of having sexual conversations, videos, and images of young girls on his phone, based on a search warrant for his WhatsApp account.
On March 31, 2023, a search warrant was executed on the residence belonging to Yamil Pillado. During that search, officials found several sexually explicit video files of young girls on Pillado’s cell phone. Pillado told authorities that he got most of the files from his cousin, Gallardo.
Pillado resides in Texas, where he has been arrested and charged. The information obtained from Pillado led to the search warrant for Gallardo’s phone and residence.
The initial investigation of these cases was spurred on by the Internet Crimes Against Children Unit at the El Paso Police Department. The cyber tip, which was alerted by Synchronoss Technologies, regarding Pillado’s Verizon Cloud account phone number, was sent to the Las Cruces Police.
Gallardo has been accused, by the Dona Ana County District Court, of one count of sexual exploitation of children, which is a fourth-degree felony. He will be held without bond.
