Christian Estrada

Christian Estrada, a 40-year-old Laredo, Texas man who was a sworn Texas Department of Public Safety state trooper at the time of the offense, was sentenced in federal court for attempting to entice a person he believed to be a minor into sexual activity. According to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Texas, an undercover operation ran from April through December 2025 and involved Estrada, who used the name dopehound while communicating on Reddit, Snapchat and Telegram. The Office said Estrada expressed a sexual interest in a fictitious child, discussed arranging a meeting for sexual activity and repeatedly asked for explicit images. The Office said authorities later obtained records from Reddit Inc. that helped identify Estrada as dopehound. The Dallas Express, citing the court record, reported that a subpoena response from Reddit in mid-December helped authorities connect the account to Estrada, and that IP address records from the Reddit account pointed to his residence. Federal agents executed a search warrant at his home on January 8, 2026, and he was arrested shortly afterwards. Estrada pleaded guilty on April 8, 2026. U.S. District Judge Marina Garcia Marmolejo then ordered him to serve 120 months in federal prison, followed by supervised release for the rest of his life with conditions restricting his access to children and the internet. The release said the court noted how disturbing it was that someone in such a respected position would commit the offense. Estrada will also be required to register as a sex offender, and he remained in custody pending transfer to a Bureau of Prisons facility. The FBI conducted the investigation with assistance from the Texas Department of Public Safety, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Makens prosecuted the case. FOX 26 Houston reported earlier in the case that the FBI said it identified the Telegram user through records obtained from Reddit and other platforms.