A legislative aide for an Alaska state senator was indicted this week on charges of sex trafficking children and producing child pornography.
Craig Scott Valdez, 36, was indicted on Tuesday and arrested on Friday in Juneau according to the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Alaska.
Federal prosecutors said that Valdez used social media app Snapchat “to identify, groom and entice juvenile females in Alaska for the purposes of sexual exploitation.”The indictment charges Valdez in connection with one victim from an incident in October 2025, but he “is believed to hae victimized or attempted to victimize other juveniles in Anchorage and Juneau.”
The US Attorney’s Office identified Valdez as a state employee working in Anchorage and Juneau, but the Anchorage Daily News went further, identifying him as a legislative aide for state Senator George Rauscher and chairman of Anchorage Young Republicans. A spokesperson for the Senate Minority Caucus said Valdez had been fired from that position, but Anchorage Young Republicans did not respond to a request for comment.
The Daily News said he was still listed as chairman on Friday, but his name had been removed by Friday evening.
The indictment says the victim in October was 15 years old and that investigators believe there are as many as 11 other victims, according to a memorandum filed by prosecutors urging a judge to deny bond.
“Mr. Valdez is a compulsive child exploitation offender engaging in high-volume conduct targeting children as young as 13 in Alaska in order to facilitate both the production of child pornography and child sex trafficking, among other offenses,” prosecutors wrote.
According to Alaska Public Media, the detention memo says that Valdez met the 15-year-old girl on Snapchat, picked her up at her home, and drove her to his home “for the purpose of sexually exploiting the child to celebrate his birthday.”
The teen’s sibling told their mother, who then used a family tracking app to track the girl to Valdez’s home. She drove to his home and waited outside while she called police. She said she heard her daughter inside the house say something about wanting to leave.
“(The girl’s) mother then entered the residence, struck Valdez once in the face and recovered the child, who exhibited signs of extreme drug or alcohol intoxication and had difficulty walking and maintaining consciousness,” the memo says. “(Police) responded a short time later, at which point Valdez, puzzlingly, chose to flee from his own residence.”
The girl left her phone inside Valdez’s home, but the mother accessed messages from a linked device and saw that Valdez had used Snapchat to entice the girl to come to his home for sex.
The teen told investigators that she had been introduced to Valdez when she was 13 or 14 by other children.
Investigators asked that anyone with any information about the case — especially if they encountered anyone using Valdez’s name or usernames “DOCHANK” or “NONAME2033132” — to contact the FBI Anchorage Field Office at (907) 276-4441 or anonymously at tips.fbi.gov.
Valdez is charged with sex trafficking of children, producing child pornography, coercion and enticement of children, and receipt of child pornography, the US Attorney’s Office said. He is set to make an initial court appearance on Monday.
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[Featured image: Craig Scott Valdez and an avatar he used on Snapchat/US Department of Justice]