South Texas Man Jailed After Using AI to ‘Nudify’ Scraped Photos of 30 Local Schoolchildren

CARRIZO SPRINGS, TX — A months-long cybercrime investigation has culminated in the arrest of a 31-year-old South Texas man accused of weaponizing artificial intelligence to scrape photos from public school pages and generate nearly 1,000 illicit images of local children.

Adan Covarrubias was arrested and booked into the Dimmit County Jail on Tuesday, May 19, 2026. He faces a first-degree felony charge of Possession of Computer-Generated Child Pornography, a prosecution made possible by Texas’s newly enacted Senate Bill 20.

School Profiles Scraped for AI Manipulation

The multi-agency investigation began to narrow its focus in April 2026, when agents with the FBI Del Rio resident agency secured consent to search and seize electronic devices at Covarrubias’s home in Carrizo Springs.

A comprehensive forensic triage of the seized digital evidence uncovered a staggering digital cache. Forensic analysts identified more than 900 images and videos containing fully AI-generated pornography depicting both prepubescent and pubescent children. Investigators also discovered a separate collection of non-AI-generated child pornography on the same hardware.

A deep dive into Covarrubias’s digital footprint revealed a predatory operational pattern. Law enforcement determined that he actively harvested clean source photographs from open-source, public directories and social media channels affiliated with South Texas schools. He then routed those local children’s photos through specialized AI tools designed to “nudify” the subjects. To date, task force investigators have positively identified approximately 30 local child victims whose likenesses were digitally exploited.

Leveraging New Laws Against New Tech

The first-degree felony charges against Covarrubias represent a major milestone under Senate Bill 20, a state law passed during the last legislative session specifically to close legal loopholes surrounding synthetic, AI-generated child exploitation material.

Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) CID Chief Floyd Goodwin highlighted the shifting landscape faced by modern cyber investigators:

“With the accessibility and use of artificial intelligence technology becoming more prevalent in our modern world, we must remember that some will use these tools for evil. In Texas, we are fortunate to have new laws that help us hold those who harm our children accountable. As AI grows, cases like this one may too.”

Daniel Faith, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s San Antonio Field Office, reinforced the federal commitment to combating synthetic material, stating that offenders continue to leverage evolving tools to produce child sexual abuse material (CSAM). Faith commended the collaborative local effort required to identify the source of the synthetic media.

The highly technical, high-stakes investigation was managed via close coordination among the Texas DPS Criminal Investigations Division, the FBI, the Dimmit County Sheriff’s Office, and the Maverick County District Attorney’s Office. The FBI is actively leading and coordinating dedicated victim services to support the affected families and South Texas school communities identified in the evidence.

About Senate Bill 20

Passed and signed into law by Governor Greg Abbott last year, Senate Bill 20 created a new state jail felony offense for the possession or promotion of obscene visual material that appears to depict a child. SB 20 specifically targets visual depictions of minors in obscene activities, regardless of whether the depiction is of an actual child, a cartoon or animation or an image created using artificial intelligence or other computer software.