A US Soldier Tried to Lure a Teen Girl to His Room With a Bag of Gummy Bears

A 22-year-old U.S. soldier was arrested last week after he bought condoms and gummy bears in the hope of luring a 15-year-old girl back to his hotel room to have sex with him, according to court documents.

Axel Cabrera was one of 1,500 troops deployed by the Pentagon to “secure the border” amid an increased influx of asylum seekers anticipating the end of the Title 42 policy. 

He had been there for just over a month when he started to text the teenage girl he met online, according to prosecutors at his first court appearance in El Paso revealed.

But the 15 year-old-girl Cabrera thought he was texting with was actually an undercover agent from the Texas Department of Public Safety posing as a teen, Assistant District Attorney John Briggs said during the court hearing on June 10. 

The agent set up a fake profile online to fish for sexual predators preying on minors, a common practice by several law enforcement agencies in the U.S., according to news stories. After Cabrera began communicating with the profile, authorities started monitoring his messages and activities. 

When Cabrera left his hotel in El Paso, Texas on the night of June 9, he didn’t know that he was being followed by an unmarked police car. Cabrera stopped at a nearby gas station where he bought condoms and a bag of gummy bears, according to court documents. Cabrera was arrested soon after his gas store purchase. 

Cabrera told the girl he thought he was in touch with that he was an active-duty soldier and was only going to be in El Paso for a little time. He then voiced his plans to have sex with her in his hotel room, Briggs said.

Cabrera is originally from Fort Carson, Colorado, according to jail records. After his arrest, he was held at the El Paso County Jail. 

Prosecutors said that the soldier had agreed to pick up the girl at a nearby restaurant and bring her back to his hotel. Before heading out to the restaurant Cabrera stopped at a gas station to get the condoms and gummy bears at the girl’s request, authorities said. 

Law enforcement agencies regularly run online undercover operations targeting sex predators or men looking to hire sex services, which is illegal in Texas. 

On May 6, another U.S. Army soldier was arrested in Liberty, North Carolina for agreeing to pay for sexual acts with a disabled child. 

Schuyler Grant Naves agreed to pay an officer who was posing as a family member for sexual acts with the minor, before traveling to Liberty where he was arrested, according to police. Naves is a U.S. Army soldier assigned to Ft. Bragg, according to police.