Edinburg, Texas Police Officer Arrested for Alleged Possession of CSAM, Including AI-Generated Deepfakes of Minors

Preston Wade Pietrzykowski, a 30-year-old Texas Department of Public Safety staff sergeant, was arrested on March 3 on charges of possession or promotion of child pornography. His wife discovered a hard drive in his luggage while searching for signs of infidelity in February. The hard drive contained multiple images of nude minor girls that had been created using deepfake technology, including one child the wife recognized as being 16 years old at the time the original photograph was taken. Additionally, the hard drive contained sexually explicit videos and pictures of current female DPS employees whose faces had been modified using artificial intelligence applications (deepfakes) to expose intimate body parts. Pietrzykowski's wife initially hesitated to report the discovery because he had threatened her with deportation due to her pending immigration status. She eventually contacted DPS Criminal Investigation Division special agent Alexiz Lopez on February 26, and the contents were reviewed with a Texas Rangers investigator on February 27. Pietrzykowski was hired by DPS in 2017, stationed in Weslaco, and worked as a staff sergeant with the agency's Tactical Marine Unit. He was immediately suspended with pay following his arrest and bailed out on a $300,000 bond on March 6.