Condoms and gummy bears: Soldier on El Paso border mission arrested in teen sex sting
A U.S. Army soldier deployed to the El Paso border was arrested after being accused of sexually soliciting a 15-year-girl in an undercover online sting, according to jail records and court officials.
Axel Cabrera, 22, was arrested by the Texas Department of Public Safety last week on a charge of online solicitation of a minor when he went to meet the girl, who was actually an undercover agent, a prosecutor said at a teleconference bond hearing over the weekend.
An El Paso County Jail log lists Cabrera as being from Fort Carson, Colorado.
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Cabrera, who has no criminal history, has been in El Paso for about a month under military orders for the "border crisis," Simon Lu, a public defense lawyer, mentioned at the hearing.
Last month, the Pentagon deployed 1,500 active-duty troops to help support U.S. Customs and Border Protection amid a huge influx of asylum-seekers before the expiration of Title 42 pandemic-era restrictions. Troops are working on monitoring, data entry and warehouse support for 90 days until the Department of Homeland Security can hire contractors.
Migrants continue to arrive at the El Paso border, but the number has dropped significantly, with unlawful entries down 70% borderwide since May 11, when Title 42 border measures expired.
Soldier arrested in teen online sex sting
Assistant District Attorney John Briggs said that Cabrera was communicating online with an undercover agent posing as a 15-year-old girl.
During the conversations with the girl, Cabrera told her that he was in the Army and was only going to be in El Paso for a little while before eventually discussing plans to have sex with her in his room at an extended-stay hotel, Briggs said.
The prosecution alleged that Cabrera made plans to meet the girl at a nearby restaurant before planning to take her to his room for an illicit underage tryst.
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A surveillance team watched Cabrera leave the hotel and go to a gas station, where he purchased "condoms and gummy bears, because she also requested gummy bears along with protection," Briggs said.
Cabrera then returned to his hotel. The girl soon texted him, saying she was at the restaurant. Cabrera was arrested while on his way to the meeting at the restaurant, the prosecution said.
Texas DPS and other law enforcement agencies regularly run undercover online solicitation-of-a-minor and prostitution stings, modern variations of the street-walker prostitution stings of decades past.
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On Monday, Cabrera remained incarcerated at the El Paso County Jail in Downtown under a $40,000 total bond. At Saturday's bond hearing, Magistrate Judge Tony Aun split the bond amount, making it $15,000 cash or corporate surety and $25,000 personal recognizance, which only requires a signature.
If released from jail, the judge also ordered that Cabrera must follow any restrictions set by the military.
This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: Teen online sex sting snares Army soldier on El Paso border mission
